Aside from the 50 people that made our final list and the many others we considered, a handful stood out as particularly worthy of mention. These are usually people whose star is on the rise or who are in a company worth keeping an eye on, however in some cases they are people worth watching simply because they are in the news and attracting media attention – not always for the right reasons!
The wife of late Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson is now the company’s largest shareholder by way of her 46% stake – and while she is not directly involved in day-to-day operations, her influence remains profound. Late last year she sold off around US$2 billion worth of shares to fund the acquisition of NBA team the Dallas Mavericks in a move seen as a strategic long-term play to help Sands secure a Texas casino license should such legislation eventually pass. Adelson’s daughter is also married to LVS President and COO Patrick Dumont, ensuring she has a direct line to the top.
Having previously run City of Dreams Manila as Property President from November 2015 to February 2018, Geoff Andres returned to his previous role in early 2021 in a swap deal with fellow Melco Resorts executive Kevin Benning, who is now at Macau’s Studio City. The Philippines remains a steady earner for Melco, bringing in around US$205 million in Adjusted EBITDA last year and well-placed to ride the country’s predicted growth trajectory in the coming years. In Andres, whose previous experience includes stints with Sands Macao and Harrah’s, they have a steady hand to steer the ship.
Holding the dual roles of President of Global Development for MGM Resorts and President and CEO of its subsidiary MGM Resorts Japan, it has been Japan where much of Ed Bowers’ focus has been in recent years. Thanks largely to the work Bowers has done over the past decade, MGM was in 2023 awarded Japan’s first and only license to develop an integrated resort, with a US$9 billion project now underway on Osaka’s Yumeshima Island. MGM has been quick to dispel doubts over whether it would continue moving the project forward although challenges with the land and Japan’s complicated processes mean opening won’t take place until at least 2030.
A veteran of the Macau gaming scene, Ted Chan was last year named as the man to replace long-time Chief Financial Officer Robert Drake as Galaxy Entertainment Group’s new CFO. That brought to an end a stint spent leading Galaxy’s push to win an IR license in Japan – one that proved fruitless when it became clear how few locations would be putting their hand up. Chan, whose past experience includes roles as Property President of Melco Crown’s Altira Macau between 2008 and 2010 and as Melco Crown Group COO between 2010 and 2016, is seen as a key part of GEG’s executive leadership team as the company re-establishes its position as one of Macau’s genuine power players.
A former investment banker and M&A specialist, Clarence Chung has been part of the Melco team for almost 20 years. Joining Melco International Development in 2003 before becoming a director in 2006, he is also a director of Melco Resorts, Melco Resorts (Philippines) and Studio City International. Previously Chairman and President of the company’s Philippines entity overseeing City of Dreams Manila, he often looks after special projects for the company. His long-term efforts were rewarded earlier this year when he was granted US$562,000 worth of restricted shares.
Ed Craven is the Australian tech innovator behind the world’s largest offshore cryptocurrency casino Stake.com, co-founded alongside Bijan Tehrani in 2017. Stake.com took off during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now a household name thanks to its global sports sponsorships. More importantly, the company has seen annual revenues climb to US$2.6 billion as of 2023, making 28-year-old Craven a very young billionaire. While Stake.com isn’t viewed favorably in many key jurisdictions, Craven noted in a recent interview with Forbes, “We’ve taken two of the most controversial technologies and industries and combined them, so it’s always been an uphill battle for us to beat public perception of what the company may stand for.”
Another of Melco’s executive reshuffles in April of this year saw David Sisk depart as Property President of City of Dreams Macau, replaced by Tim Kelly. Kelly joined after a seven-year stint with Kerzner International – where he spent six years overseeing Atlantis, Dubai and the last 12 months as President of Atlantis – placing him in charge of the company’s Atlantis resorts in Dubai and Sanya, China. His task is clear – to reclaim some of the ground Melco has lost post-COVID in the premium mass segment the company claims to have created. Kelly began his integrated resort career at MGM Grand in Las Vegas before spending four years with Wynn Resorts in Macau between 2013 and 2017.
Andrew Lo has risen to become the number one man of Hong Kong-listed LET Group Holdings, formerly Suncity Group, since the arrest of his boss Alvin Chau in November 2021. Lo, previously the company’s Chief Investment Officer, also acquired Chau’s shareholding, although LET remains in considerable debt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been actively selling off non-core assets to stay afloat. Its long-term viability relies on the success of a US$1.1 billion casino-hotel development in Manila’s Entertainment City, due to open in 2025, while Lo himself has attracted the ire of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission for alleged misconduct after an unsuccessful attempt to sell off the company’s stake in Russian casino Tigre de Cristal.
India’s casino sector faces its greatest ever challenge as it awaits a legal verdict on a tax issue that will make or break the industry. Last year the country’s GST Council revealed it would implement a 28% tax on all real-money gaming, but with one key caveat – the tax would be charged on the total value of bets placed rather than on revenue generated. Local governments have also issued Delta Corp – India’s only listed gaming firm – with back payment notices to the tune of almost US$3 billion, a number that would surely put it out of business. Perhaps that’s the intention, although Delta Corp has stated its confidence in winning a legal challenge that remains in front of the courts.
As Chairman of real estate firm Belle Corp, Willy Ocier oversees the company’s partnership with Melco Resorts (Philippines) – a key driver of revenue given the resurgence of the Philippine gaming industry. Belle Corp owns the land upon which Melco’s City of Dreams Manila sits and as such draws both a percentage of GGR and rent from the land lease. Ocier is also Chairman and Director of Belle Corp’s other gaming entities: Premium Leisure Corp, APC Group Inc, Pacific Online Systems Corporation, Total Gaming and Technologies Inc, and Premium Leisure and Amusement Inc. Belle Corp this year confirmed its interest in acquiring a casino license in Clark, north of Manila, as it looks to spread its wings.
One of Sri Lanka’s most successful businessmen, Dhammika Perera’s Vallibel One boasts 54 subsidiaries across six industry sectors, with interests in everything from manufacturing to finance, leisure, packaging, lifestyle and healthcare. But Perera may be best known for his casino empire, holding three of Sri Lanka’s five casino licenses and operating the country’s largest casino, Bally’s Colombo, plus Bellagio Colombo and The Ritz Club. Perera briefly stepped down from an active role in Vallibel last year after being sworn into the Sri Lankan cabinet – the goal being to use his business skills to help attract foreign investment into the country – but he has since left politics behind and returned to doing what he does best.
Manila’s Newport World Resorts (NWR) has entered a new era in 2024 after three long-time executives were let go and a raft of fresh blood brought in. Top of the pops in that regard was Nilo Rodriguez – a veteran airline executive who was tagged some years ago by Alliance Global Group CEO Kevin Tan as the man to lead the company’s gaming and leisure arm, Travellers International Hotel Group, forward. After a little under two years as Travellers’ Chief Strategy Officer, Rodriguez became CEO in June and with a fresh team working alongside has already helped boost GGR, with NWR showing signs of finally fulfilling its enormous potential. Rodriguez previously spent around two-and-a-half years as CFO for Philippine Airlines and brings with him a strong finance background.
Stephen Schwarzman co-founded The Blackstone Group in 1985 – a company originally focused on mergers and acquisitions that has since grown to become one of the world’s leading investment firms, with US$1 trillion in assets under management. Among its more prominent assets have been Blackstone’s investments into the casino space, having bought and sold The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas and still holding partial stakes in Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand. In 2022 it acquired 100% of the equity interest in Australia’s Crown Resorts in a US$6.5 billion deal, and while it has shown little interest in doing the same for Star Entertainment Group, a push into Asia in the future wouldn’t surprise.
Like watching the birth of a child, Chen Si has been at the helm of Mohegan’s Korean integrated resort venture since it was barely a hole in the ground. Joining the company as Chief Operating Officer during pre-opening in August 2022 before being promoted to President in September 2023, Si has helped bring Mohegan INSPIRE to life. Korea’s largest integrated resort, coming at a cost of US$1.6 billion, opened in November last year with casino operations coming online this past February. Ramp since then has been slow but steady, with the company revealing at a recent investor day that table drop, visitation and hotel occupancy had all seen steady increases each and every month this year. Inspire is the second integrated resort to open in Incheon after nearby Paradise City.
Former Sands China CEO and President Ed Tracy became Hard Rock International’s CEO of Asia in 2017, tasked with expanding the company’s regional portfolio – including No.1 target, Japan. While that opportunity has been shelved for now, there have been recent murmurings that Hokkaido – which Hard Rock previously identified as its preferred location to develop an IR – may be keen to rekindle its candidacy, potentially opening the door for those who are willing to remain patient. For now, Tracy is staying off the Asian radar.
It’s been a whirlwind introduction to Crown for David Tsai, the long-time MGM Resorts executive who relocated halfway around the world to become Crown Perth CEO in December 2022. In July of this year Tsai was promoted to the role of President and Group COO as part of a reshuffle and barely a month later named Acting CEO after Ciarán Carruthers announced his impending departure. He has since been confirmed as permanent CEO, tasked with helping steady the Crown ship now that the company has returned to suitability in NSW and Victoria. Tsai previously spent 15 years with MGM Resorts, including as President Midwest Group where he oversaw MGM Grand Detroit and MGM Northfield Park.
It’s been an initiation of fire for new SkyCity Entertainment Group CEO Jason Walbridge. Announced as Michael Ahearne’s replacement in April before starting in the role in July, Walbridge’s first act was to agree a five-day closure of the company’s flagship Auckland casino with the Secretary for Internal Affairs, over a historical “continuous play” complaint from a former customer. The company has also agreed a US$2.5 million civil penalty for historic breaches of New Zealand’s AML laws and a US$44 million penalty with the Australian AML regulator for similar breaches at its Adelaide casino. On the plus side, Walbridge brings with him more than two decades of senior executive public company experience with the likes of Aristocrat and Light & Wonder.
Albert Yeung’s business career began when he took the two small Hong Kong watch shops his father owned and turned them into an empire boasting six listed companies making everything from films to furniture. Casino operations have aformed part of that empire, having utilized his friendship with Stanley Ho to run satellite casino Grand Emperor, located on the Macau peninsula, under license from Ho’s SJM. Grand Emperor is famous for the Coldstream Guards who grace its entryway. Emperor Group’s involvement looked set to end in 2022 when it reached an agreement for SJM to take over full control, before a change of heart saw the company ink a new deal to resume operations until at least 2026.
Appointed as CEO of Korean foreigner-only casino operator Grand Korea Leisure in August 2021, Kim Young-san recently completed his three-year term in charge of the company and it remains to be seen how long he stays in the role. Yet the fact that he was in June appointed as joint chair to oversee a company taskforce aiming for regional expansion suggests he could be in it for the long haul. GKL doesn’t have the same reach as its main rival in the foreigner-only space, Paradise Co, but it still operates three casinos and in 2023 relocated one of its two Seoul casinos to a brand-new space at multi-hotel complex Seoul Dragon City.
Legendary Hong Kong-based businessman Allan Zeman, best known for building the famous Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district from the ground up, stepped into the void left by Steve Wynn’s departure to be appointed Chairman of Wynn Macau Ltd in early 2018. A director of the company since its inception, he holds sway with officials in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China but particularly in Hong Kong where he is a member of or advisor to multiple business and economic groups, including the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. Zeman is also a naturalized citizen of China and holds a Chinese passport. His business acumen has been vital in helping the company ride the challenges that recent years have presented.
On The Radar
In addition to the 75 people in the combined BIG 50, The Next 5 and the Ones To Watch, we also have a list of over 30 people who we consider “On The Radar”. This list is not published, but we use it each year to check for potential new Power 50 entries. If you think of a name you don’t see amongst the 75 published in this issue who you think should be on our radar for future years, please email our Managing Editor, Ben Blaschke, at bb@asgam.com, and we’ll consider adding them to our “On The Radar” list if they’re not already there.
For the full list of 2024 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
