Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUN 2022年6月 亞博匯 108 year-old had his eyes on The Star Sydney – having recently acquired a near-10% stake in Star’s parent company, Echo Entertainment (now Star Entertainment Group). The trigger, IAG reported at the time, for this acquisition was believed to be completion of an AU$870 million (US$621 million) facelift of the Sydney property, placing it in direct competition with Crown in providing an attractive destination for high- rolling Asian gamblers. As reported by IAG at the time, the VIP trade in Australia generated AU$24.7 billion (US$17.6 billion) in turnover in 2010 and was growing at double-digit rates annually. UBS estimates also suggested that the Australian VIP market might be worth up to US$100 billion in turnover by 2014, driven by visitation from China that was expected to hit 16 million. “Eighty percent of travelers out of China end up going to a gaming venue on their first trip,” added PWC Sydney’s David Waidsowski. “With the recent renovations at The Star, they are trying to do as much as they can to attract as many as they can.” Desperate to claim as much of this pie as possible, Packer was in 2012 seeking permission to increase his stake in Echo from 10% – the most allowed under NSW law without the express permission of the regulator – to around 23%. But his plans would quickly change. CrownResorts completed development of Crown Sydney in 2020. 皇冠集團於2020年完成了 Crown Sydney的開發。 10 YEARS AGO