Inside Asian Gaming

October 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 9 Cover Story A s we mentioned in our story ‘Hare and Tortoise Race’ published last December,threebillionAsian consumers live within a five-hour plane ride of Phnom Penh—a figure that compares favourably with the demographic reach of Macau in Greater China and from next year Singapore in Southeast and South Asia. This is in an Asia Pacific region where according to a report by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this year, casino-based gambling revenues could more than double to US$34.4 billion in the next few years, from US$16.5 billion in 2007. Even if that figure needs to be adjusted significantly down should Asia catch a cold from the chill winds blowing through Western economies, it seems unlikely at the moment that the market will actually contract. For the first seven months of 2008, foreign visitor arrivals to Cambodia stood at 1,242,459; an 11.1% increase compared to the same period of 2007 according to the Ministry of Tourism. Siem Reap with its French colonial architecture and the Big Market Cambodia’s footprint compares favourably with Macau World Heritage sites at nearby Angkor Wat received just over half of all arrivals, with 51.9% of the tourists. Phnom Penh and other destinations had a 48.1% share. In the same period South Korean visitors kept their pole position as most prolific general tourists, with a 14.5% market share, followed by citizens from Vietnam (9.7%), Japan (7.2%),the US (7.2%),and China (6.3%). A breakdown of the nationality of gamblers to NagaWorld, Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino,for the first half of 2007 showsmore of an emphasis on arrivals from neighbouring countries. Vietnamese gamblers made up 38.5% of the players at NagaWorld, with Chinese citizens accounting for 25.7% and Malaysian visitors 20.8%. Border tensions In Cambodia’s border casinos in towns such as Bavet and Poipet, the majority of the customers appear to be Thais and Vietnamese. The border trade is vulnerable, though, to political tensions, particularly between Thailand and Cambodia. In two incidents at the beginning of October, two Thai soldiers and one Cambodian soldier were injured in an exchange of gunfire near the site of the Preah Vihear temple, whose ownership is disputed by the two nations. Days later two more Thai soldiers were badly wounded when they stepped on landmines allegedly sown within Thai territory by the Cambodians.