Inside Asian Gaming

APRIL 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 15 COVER STORY T HE 20-minute drive from Nepal’s Gautam Buddha Airport to Tiger Palace Resort is an edge- of-your-seat test of nerves along dusty roads in various states of repair. At its sternest, the gravel potholes and dust-filled air reduce progress to a slow and winding crawl. Where upgrades are complete, cars and bikes sneak past the dozens of brightly colored trucks heading to and from the nearby Indian border. The occasional herd of cows are seemingly unfazed as they casually stroll along the gutter. Suddenly, turning left off the highway and rounding a bend, Tiger Palace appears like an oasis in a shimmering desert. Located, as it is, in the middle of nowhere, the sense of luxury on arrival is exaggerated by its dramatic contrast to the world outside. At a cost of US$52 million, Tiger Palace Resort is the first integrated resort to be built in South Asia – the region comprising Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the Maldives and Bhutan. It is also a huge leap of faith for Australian-listed owner Silver Heritage Group, which is banking its future on the 215 million people living just across the border in Uttar Pradesh – India’s most populous state. More specifically it is targeting the estimated 16 million middle and upper class Indians living within a six-hour drive. “This is truly a one-of-a-kind property unlike anything in either Goa or Sikkim, the two states in India with licensed live table casino gaming,” explains Silver Heritage Managing Director and CEO Mike Bolsover, nodding to the company’s overriding strategy of giving northern Indian players something they can’t find at home and without the need to travel far. “There is nothing like this in the entire country,” adds recently appointed General Manager – Hotel, Brett Model. “The Indian customer is similar to the Chinese customer in Macau. They want the best, they want to be treated well and at Tiger Palace we’re able to offer that in terms of top notch service and facilities.” Tiger Palace is located just eight kilometers from the Sunauli border crossing, the only India-Nepal crossing open to pedestrians 24 hours a day. When Inside Asian Gaming visited the border on a typical mid-week afternoon, we were greeted by an assault on the senses that put anything experienced at Macau’s ferry terminals to shame. Much like the border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia in Poipet, it’s dirty, it’s dusty and it’s relentlessly busy as people on foot and in rickshaws shuffle in and around the crawling lines of traffic. Trucks queue for over a kilometer on the Nepal side, presumably on the Indian side as well. The road on approach is lined with men, young and old, selling snacks and tiny trinkets from tiny stalls or sometimes from the basket of a rusty bicycle. Two well-dressed women are cycled over the crossing by rickshaw. A teenage boy slowly drags a crate piled high with cardboard from one country to the other. It’s a raw glimpse into the day-to-day life of the local people. But Silver Heritage didn’t choose Nepal’s southern Terai plains – far removed from the Himalayan peaks the country is famous for – as Tiger Palace’s home for no reason. Despite India’s 36 states and union territories housing a combined 1.3 billion people, only three – Goa, Sikkim and Daman and Diu – have the ability to issue casino licenses and only two of those actually have licensed gaming