Inside Asian Gaming

February 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 47 Briefs that want to align with an organisation that represents the best suppliers in the global gaming industry. Tracy Cohen currently serves as Marketing Manager of TCS JOHNHUXLEY, an AGEM-member company based in the UK with 11 offices worldwide that offers a combination of manufacturing strength with innovation and product development—from quality, hand- crafted furniture to cutting edge technical products. With more than 20 years of experience in the gaming industry, Ms Cohen will serve in a part- time role for AGEM and continue her position for TCS JOHNHUXLEY. “The opening of an AGEM Europe location will allow us to better serve all global suppliers by having closer contact with a key business region for our members and our European casino customers,” said Thomas A. Jingoli, AGEM President and Chief Compliance Officer for Konami Gaming. “Tracy is well respected throughout gaming and motivated to serve as our eyes and ears in Europe so that AGEM is better equipped to address any issues that affect a broad range of suppliers there.” “I’m delighted to have been asked to head up the European office for AGEM,”Ms Cohen said. “It’s a great honour and I’m looking forward to working with and supporting the members in the region as well as building the AGEM brand and promoting it throughout Europe and beyond.” Moscow police bust illegal casino Last month, Moscow police raided an illegal gambling den across the street from the Foreign Ministry, according to a report by the Russian International News Agency . About 80 gamblers and casino operators were taken by surprise when heavily armed, black-clad officers barged in, police spokeswoman Yelena Perfilova said. Apparently, the casino was hidden behind a second-floor kitchen in a hotel across from the ministry building. Police “seized 13 poker tables, four roulette wheels, 17 slot- machines, 50,000 gambling chips and 2,000 decks of cards,” Ms Perfilova said. Illegal casinos have proliferated in Russia since a July 2009 law banished casinos to four remote regions of the country. LVS turns a profit, fuelled by new Singapore resort Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) reported net income of US$271 million in Q4 2010, which translated to 34 cents a share. In the year-ago quarter, LVS lost $113.9 million, or 17 cents a share. Net revenue surged 56.9% year- on-year in the quarter to US$2.02 billion, compared with $1.28 billion a year ago. For full year 2010, LVS net revenue reached $6.85 billion, up 50% from $4.56 billion in 2009. The company’s Singapore property, Marina Bay Sands (which opened in April 2010), registered net revenues of US$560.4 million in Q4 2010, which translated into cash flow of $305.8 million. According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal , LVS Chairman Sheldon Adelson said the results in Singapore were significant becauseportionsof the resortwere still under construction in the last part of the year. “Marina Bay Sands is really still in its infancy. We are extremely pleased with the property’s results and its position in the market,”Mr Adelson said. “The Singapore market is still emerging and as we near the completion of our property’s original master plan, the market is all but certain to grow.” The company’s three Macau properties, meanwhile, contributed half its total revenues. Sands Macao, Venetian Macao and Four Seasons Macao generated combined revenues of US$1.09 billion in Q4 2010, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%. Macau also accounted for $213.3 million of the company’s net income in the quarter—almost 78% of the total. Still, only two of the three Macau properties registered revenue gains in the quarter. Net revenues at Venetian Macao grew 15.7% to US$661.5 million and those at Sands Macao rose 12.1% to $319.3 million. However, net revenues at the Four Seasons Macao (and its Plaza Casino) decreased 6.1% year-on-year to $91.8 million. Mr Adelson reminded listeners on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call that total gaming revenues in Macau had surged from US$3.5 billion in 2003 to $23.5 billion in 2010. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, would have predicted that in a span of seven years it [Macau] would be four times the size of Las Vegas,”Mr Adelson said. “Early estimates on the size of the market in Singapore have clearly been conservative as well.” In Las Vegas, combined net revenues at The Venetian and Palazzo grew 16.5% to US$310.6 million in Q4 2010. Net revenues at the company’s casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, jumped 45% in the quarter to $83.4 million, thanks in large part to the addition of table games at the casino. Tracy Cohen Across the street—Moscow’s Foreign Ministry The turnaround kid—Marina Bay Sands