The presents have been gifted, the New Year rung-in and the Inside Asian Gaming staff refreshed after what was a truly massive 2023 for the Asian – and global – gaming industries. The team at IAG traditionally takes a well-deserved two-week break each year in the second half of December, and in 2023 we broke up on 15 December before returning tomorrow morning, Tuesday 2 January 2024!
Most of the time, this two-week period is a relatively quiet time for our industry, although there is inevitably some news to report from time to time.
So, what happened between 16 December and 1 January? Here’s everything you need to know:
Macau’s MOP$180 billion “trigger event”
Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said on 20 December that gross gaming revenues for FY23 were likely to reach MOP$180 billion, having stated the target was unlikely just a month earlier in November.
As previously reported by Inside Asian Gaming, this represented a key “trigger event” for the industry with all six concessionaires having in December 2022 agreed to invest an additional 20% annually into non-gaming developments should annual GGR reach the MOP$180 billion milestone.
Under their original 10-year concessions, running from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2032, the concessionaires had agreed to invest the following in non-gaming initiatives:
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- GEG: MOP$27.45 billion
- Melco: MOP$10.008 billion
- MGM: MOP$15 billion
- Sands: MOP$27.8 billion
- SJM: MOP$12 billion
- Wynn: MOP$16.5 billion
- Total: MOP$108.8 billion (US$13.6 billion)
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With GGR for the first 11 months of the year having reached MOP$164.5 billion, all eyes were on the December tally to see if it would top MOP$15.5 billion and trigger the additional mandatory investment. And indeed this proved to be the case with December becoming Macau’s second biggest month of the year with GGR at MOP$18.6 billion and taking FY23 GGR to MOP$183.1 billion.
A great recovery for Macau’s casino operators in 2023 but perhaps MOP$179.9 billion might have been better!
R&F Korea
Towards the end of 2023 the promotor of a stalled integrated resort development in Incheon, South Korea, was reportedly preparing another request to postpone the deadline for completion, this time reportedly to March 2025.
R&F Korea, whose project will, if completed, become Incheon’s third IR after Paradise City and the recently launched Mohegan Inspire, has been granted four previous extensions to the opening deadline but has yet to resume construction post-pandemic.
Originally scheduled to open in 2018, the project was previously controlled by US casino giant Caesars Entertainment before the company sold its stake in February 2021. Caesars CEO Tom Reeg famously said at the time that his company had “sold it for some barbecue pork” in a moment of shockingly poor judgement.
Time will tell whether R&F Korea can find the funding and motivation it needs to finally push forward with the stalled development.
Solaire North opening in March 2024
Philippines media outlet Philippine Star reported Bloomberry Resorts Corp Chairman and CEO Enrique K Razon Jr as confirming its second Manila integrated resort, Solaire Resort North in Quezon City, will open in March 2024.
Razon, who opened Philippines market leader Solaire Resort Entertainment City in 2013, also explained that the property would undergo a test run before welcoming its first guests.
Razon had previously flagged March 2024 as the opening month some time ago, so the real news here is not so much the opening month, but that he confirmed it once again in December.
Solaire Resort North is slated to feature 13,150 square meters of gaming space plus 11 specially curated restaurants and bars, MICE space, an outdoor Olympic size swimming pool, a gym, spa and children’s play area, among others.
Tabcorp’s Victorian victory
Australian racing and wagering giant Tabcorp has been awarded the new 20-year Victorian wagering and betting license, beating out competition from corporate bookmakers.
The new license, commencing from August 2024, also provides for what Tabcorp describes as a “level playing field” by removing the current joint venture arrangement with the Victorian racing industry and associated funding obligations, with Tabcorp to pay wagering taxes and racing and sports product fees on the same basis as other wagering operators.
Had the new license conditions existed under the arrangement in place for 2023, the company’s FY23 Group EBITDA would have been AU$140 million (US$95 million) better off, Tabcorp explained.
Aside from a restructured funding agreement, the license is significant in that it leaves Tabcorp as the sole provider of retail betting agencies across the state.
No to Nagasaki
IAG reported on 27 December that Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism would not approve the development plan for an integrated resort with casino gaming in Nagasaki, citing concerns around financing and the track record of investors.
The IR was, had it been approved, to be developed by a consortium called Kyushu Resorts Japan, led by Casinos Austria International. However, the Ministry deemed there was not sufficient evidence that the project could be fully financed and expressed concerns over the expertise of participating parties in executing their responsible gaming obligations.
There were also questions around precisely who was behind the bid, with the involved parties apparently shuffling like deck chairs on the Titanic and questions about whether more shuffling was yet to come.
With Nagasaki now dead in the water, the final result of Japan’s long-running IR saga will be a single IR development – by the MGM Resorts-ORIX consortium – in Osaka. Unless, of course, it isn’t. Who knows what could happen between now and the opening of MGM Osaka, currently slated for 2030!
NBA approved Miriam Adelson’s acquisition of the Dallas Mavericks
Many on both sides of the Pacific were fascinated by the 29 November news that Miriam Adelson, the majority shareholder of global gaming giant Las Vegas Sands Corp, planned to sell US$2 billion worth of her shares in the company, equal to around 10% of her stake, in order to acquire a professional sports franchise. It took about five minutes for the news to emerge that the franchise in question was none other than the Dallas Mavericks, owned by and synonymous with Mark Cuban, of Shark Tank fame. But apparently part of the plan is for Cuban to stay as the face of the team.
The prevailing theory is that the Adelson-Cuban combo would provide a formidable team to push for the legalization of casino gaming in Texas, and for the Mavs to find themselves in a shiny new stadium as part of an integrated resort in Dallas – of course with a casino as the financial engine of the whole shebang. There is, however, one not-so-slight hurdle in the way — casino gaming is currently not legal in Texas! And Texas Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick is currently adamant that that is the way it will stay.
All this became just one small step closer on Wednesday 27 December, when the NBA approved Miriam Adelson’s acquisition of the Dallas Mavericks. Watch this space!
