Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2021年8月 亞博匯 77 日本 highly successful IR, and won approval for a license extension and further development,” says Murray. “Also, Genting does not operate in Macau. It has been suggested that the Japanese government may be happier to approve operators without operations in Macau.” For the record, while Genting has never run gaming operations in Macau, Genting Hong Kong does boast a wholly-owned Macau subsidiary, Genting Macau, which has been developing a hotel alongside Macau’s Nam Van Lake. However, Genting Hong Kong sold 50% of its stake in Genting Macau last November and has flagged the likely sale of its remaining stake in the future to help pay off some of its US$2.6 billion in debt. PARTNERS Genting Singapore named its five Yokohama IR consortium partners in June, a list notable for the presence of Japanese gaming firm Sega Sammy Holdings. It’s difficult to know exactly what active role, other than being an investor, Sega Sammy might play in the consortium given that its experience is limited to pachinkomachine development – an industry set to be excluded from Japan’s casino floors – and a 45% stake in Paradise City, a foreigner-only IR in Incheon, Korea. Sega Sammy has stated that its Korean interest is primarily a means of gaining IR operations experience to bring back to Japan, but the partnership is clearly led by its 55% owner, Korea’s Paradise Co. Paradise City has also been slow to ramp, reaching profitability only briefly since opening in February 2016.