News

White Paper by Kit Szybala quoted in GGR Asia

Silver Heritage’s new Nepal resort soft opening Feb

Tiger Palace Resort, Bhairahawa, a casino resort being constructed in Nepal on that country’s long border with India, is due to have a soft opening in February, 2017

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White Paper by Shaun McCamley quoted in Forbes

Proxy Betting Banned in Macau Now On The Rise In Southeast Asia

by Muhammad Cohen

Itching to play baccarat but don’t want to draw attention to yourself in the midst of a corruption crackdown by visiting a casino or break local law by gambling online?  Don’t worry, you can still get a casino gaming fix, live before your very eyes, completely under your control and totally legally, at least until authorities decide otherwise.  It’s called proxy better and it’s an increasingly popular way for mainland China players to get action amid continued scrutiny of high rollers in Macau.  The phenomenon poses new challenges to financial watchdogs hoping to stop money laundering and new opportunities for casino operators and junket promoters to engage their customers and expand their profits. Global Market Advisors estimates Macau’s proxy betting volume grew 15% last year, while overall VIP revenue fell 40%. Morgan Stanley estimates 8-10% of Macau’s VIP revenue came from proxy betting – before the government banned it in May.

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Andrew Klebanow quoted in Inside Asian Gaming

Big Wynn for Cotai

by Muhammad Cohen

Steve Wynn became a billionaire largely by defying conventional wisdom.  People said Downtown Las Vegas was dead, yet he bought the Golden Nugget and made it a first class casino hotel.  They said people wouldn’t pay top dollar for the Strip, yet he built Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio – transforming Las Vegas into a luxury destination.  Now, in Cotai, Mr. Wynn has made a US$4.2 billion bet that he understands what diversification means better than the government does.

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Article by Shaun McCamley featured in Asian Gaming Lawyer

White Paper: Proxy Gambling in Southeast Asia

by Shaun McCamley

Proxy betting is booming throughout Southeast Asia.  In early 2016, industry analysts estimated that proxy betting’s contribution to overall Macau VIP betting volume had grown about 15 percent in 2015 from the prior year.

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Steven Gallaway quoted in Asia Gaming Brief

Tigre de Cristal eyes non-gaming to lure local crowds

Tigre de Cristal, Russia’s biggest casino, is focusing on its non-gaming attractions to boost revenue following lower-than-expected demand from locals for its casino offering.

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Shaun McCamley quoted on CNBC

Vietnam refuses to lift casino ban on locals, dashing foreign investors’ hopes

by Nyshka Chandran

The failure of Vietnam’s government to reverse a longstanding ban on locals in casinos may be detrimental to foreign investment in the sector, analysts cautioned.

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GMA’s white paper on proxy betting is quoted in GGR Asia

Robust regulation needed for proxy betting: GMA

Proxy betting has a legitimate place on casino floors as a relatively cheap-to-establish product that can bring incremental gains to venues’ gaming revenues – but it needs “robust regulation” in order to be accepted, says a new research paper from consultancy Global Market Advisors LLC (GMA).

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You can read the referenced white paper here

Steve Gallaway quoted on Forbes.com

As China Slows Down, Asian Casino Operators Eye Tough European Market

by Muhammad Cohen

Tough times at home have Asian casino operators eyeing Europe in search of returns.  “With China down, it’s about finding revenue elsewhere,” Global Market Advisors managing partner Steve Gallaway says.  But Europe is a much tougher market than Asia, with more casinos and fewer people, lower bets and higher costs, he adds, a view most other experts endorse.  More Chinese are indeed visiting Europe but not enough to justify major casino investments; Chinese high rollers are still much more likely to play in Asia, where they’re more profitable to operators.  Asian operators do come to the continent with one ace up their sleeve that can change the face of gaming in Europe.

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Andrew Klebanow quoted in Inside Asian Gaming magazine

Clinton v Trump: The gaming industry’s great unknown

By James Rutherford

What can the gaming industry expect from this wildest and most unpredictable of US presidential elections?  Put it this way – what if someone told you six months ago that the next leader of the free world could well be a self-proclaimed billionaire property tycoon and the reality TV star with four corporate bankruptcies to his credit, who’s running on a pledge to ban the world’s Muslims from entering the United States and wants to build a wall across the country’s 1,900 mile border with Mexico?

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Steve Gallaway quoted in Inside Asian Gaming Magazine

Asian operators look to Europe

by Muhammad Cohen

More Chinese tourists are coming to Europe and Asian casino operators are following.  Chinese tourists come to Europe to broaden their horizons, enabled by rising incomes at home.  Asian casino operators also come to Europe to broaden their horizons, but they’re driven by falling incomes at home.  Like the tourists, casino operators find Europe vastly different and more difficult to navigate than their home turf.  Those obstacles don’t preclude a successful trip, but it does make the journey far more challenging.

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