Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING DECEMBER 2018 64 As rollercoaster rides go, they don’t come much more “edge of your seat” than the one endured by Landing International’s Chairman Dr Yang Zhihui has endured in 2018. The year began well enough, with Landing’s Korean integrated resort Jeju Shinhwa World launching its new casino in February, then proceeding to generate gross gaming revenue of HK$2.4 billion for the first six months of the year – more than the combined GGR of Jeju’s eight casinos through all of 2017. The opening of more amenities and thawing of diplomatic hostilities between Korea and China also has visitor numbers on the up once again, painting a rosy enough picture for the future of Dr Yang’s Jeju dream. But hopes of creating a similar success story in the Philippines hit an unexpected road block in August when, on the very same day the company held the groundbreaking ceremony for a US$1.5 billion Manila IR, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte fired the entire board of Landing’s local partner and declared no such casino resort would go ahead. That project now looks dead in the water. Of far greater concern though is the fact that, for the past three months, Dr Yang has been officially missing. On Thursday 23 August, Landing International issued a trading halt after its stock price plummeted 35% in less than two hours, stating in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it had been unable to contact its Chairman. The following day it was reported by Chinese media that Dr Yang has been detained by police in Cambodia and extradited back to China in relation to business links to China’s state-owned Huarong International Financial Holdings Ltd, whose former head is being investigated in a graft probe. To this day, the company remains none the wiser as to his whereabouts – leaving many questions unanswered regarding which direction Landing takes now. Renowned as one of Macau’s richest men – with a property portfolio in the hundreds – Chan Meng Kam has long had one foot in the city’s gaming business via Golden Dragon Group, owner and operator of Casino Golden Dragon. It was the success of Casino Golden Dragon that propelled Chan’s property and business interests but – putting aside rumors he has long held great industry influence behind the scenes – it wasn’t until 2017 that he openly began expanding his gaming interests. In late September last year, Golden Dragon Group surprised many when it launched a new casino, Royal Dragon, under the license of SJM despite the government’s famed 2008 Moratorium supposedly ruling out any such new satellite agreements being approved. Royal Dragon opened with 20 gaming tables moved by SJM from nearby Oceanus. Chan then surprised again in October 2017 when it was announced that he had signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire another downtown hotel and casino, Hotel Lan Kwai Fong, for HK$2 billion. That purchase was completed in January 2018. Clearly the former member of Macau’s Legislative Assembly has big plans within the industry, including the development of a new two- star hotel in Cotai and a possible bid for a seventh Macau gaming license in the coming years. A member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and hugely influential figure among Macau’s Fujian community, Chan served three terms as a Macau lawmaker between 2005 and 2017 before announcing he was stepping down from official government duties ahead of this year’s election. Chan Meng Kam PRESIDENT Golden Dragon Group POWER SCORE: 595 POSITION LAST YEAR: 45 CLAIMS TO FAME Former member of Macau’s Legislative Assembly One of the city’s biggest property owners 46 ASIAN GAMING POWER 50 2 0 1 8