Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JANUARY 2018 18 table minimums – US$100 for baccarat “squeeze games” that allow bettors to handle their cards, US$40 minimums for baccarat with cards dealt face up. There are sic bo and roulette tables, but card games dominate, principally blackjack, poker variants – Naga1 has a pair of Texas hold’em tables – plus Vietnamese favorites Bai Buu and Ngau Ham. The new towers add 900 guest rooms, bringing NagaWorld’s total to 1,700. Naga2 features an elegant multipurpose Broadway style theater with 2,200 seats and full state of the art visual projection capabilities, suitable for MICE applications, concerts and international touring companies. NagaCity Walk, the underground shopping area linking the two sides of the complex, has 3,800 square meters (41,000 square feet) of retail space, nearly 15 times more shopping than Naga1, across two dozen storefronts ranging from local products to international fashions, much of it duty-free and new to Cambodia. Naga means dragon in many Asian languages but also connotes gold in some Chinese dialects, so gold and Khmer themes dominate public areas, with VIP rooms sporting lotus, butterfly and other motifs. New dining and drinking options include opulent Cantonese Hall of Golden Chimes, a noodle bar, 2Pangaea with Indochina’s longest buffet, a food court at Naga2’s entrance from NagaCity Walk and bars in many gaming areas. Almost every food outlet has adjacent slot machines: Paul Steelman says slots overlooking dining garner higher revenue. TAKING ADVANTAGE Naga2 illustrates how the company effectively leverages its competitive advantages – and sometimes creates them. NagaCorp holds a 70-year gaming license, including an exclusive for Phnom Penh until 2035. Naga hasn’t abused the privilege to build multiple casinos, Chairman McNally points out. Instead, along with corporate support for the nation’s rebuilding to overcome the Khmer Rouge legacy of destruction, Naga has forged a partnership with the government to boost tourism, financially supporting Cambodian tourism offices in China and leasing three Airbus A320s for Bassaka Air, an international airline based in Phnom Penh. Cambodia’s relatively low costs, along with Naga’s careful eye on capital expenditures, held construction costs for Naga2 and COVER STORY