Inside Asian Gaming

45 August 2013 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS Asia Key as Lottery Sales Improve Worldwide Global lottery sales bounced back from a slow start to 2013 to show an increase of 4.6% in the first half, driven by a strong second quarter in Asia and the Americas. Figures released by the World Lottery Association show that Latin America was home to the standout markets during the January-June period, with aggregate sales up 24.6% compared to the first six months of 2012. Argentina’s Lotería Nacional Sociedad del Estado, which has recorded consistently strong growth the last two years, posted a 31% increase. The popularity of bingo in Buenos Aires was a major contributor, theWLA said. Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal also enjoyed healthy growth, reporting an increase of 12.5%, bolstered by several special draws, including an inaugural Lotomania de Páscoa. Sales were up sharply across the Asia-Pacific region as well, 11.1% year on year, driven by China’s two massive operators—the Sports Lottery, which posted a 19.6% increase to CNY10.54 billion (US$1.72 billion), and the Welfare Lottery, up 13.4% to CNY10.11 billion ($1.65 billion). Both benefited from a restructuring of their businesses, theWLA said, highlighted by new instant games and the introduction of pilot VLT programs in some areas. Significantly, the association noted, theWelfare Lottery is poised to overtake Italy’s Lottomatica to become the world’s largest lottery by sales volume. North American sales recovered during the second quarter to post an overall increase of 9.4%, buoyed by a historic $656 million MegaMillions jackpot in the United States and a strong performance from the California Lottery, which joined the multistate Powerball draw in June and promptly saw its second-quarter sales grow by 24.1% year on year. A $590 million Powerball jackpot was paid the same month. Europe, which continues to be challenged by a sluggish macroeconomic picture, registered a modest improvement in the second quarter to overcome a 2.8% first-quarter drop and post an overall decline of 1.7% for the half. Major operators such as Greece’s OPAP and Spain’s LAE and ONCE finished the period with more sizable year-on-year declines. The African markets were essentially flat year on year at minus-0.7% in the first half but managed to recover from a 3.2% first-quarter decline with help from a strong April-June in South Africa, where the National Lottery grew sales by 11.1% Suen Beats LVS for $1M in Trial Costs Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen was awarded US$1.03 million by a Las Vegas court last month to cover expenses for his successful legal fight against Las Vegas Sands over the casino giant’s Macau gaming concession. The amount is 10% less than he requested for the six-week trial that ended in May but far more than the 90% discount requested by Sands. In his ruling, which was covered by the Las Vegas Review-Journal , Clark County District Judge Rob Bare praised Mr Suen’s legal team for the “professional, high-caliber” manner in which it presented evidence and endorsed the computer graphics and document management that have become increasingly common in complex trials, particularly those involving business litigation. Slightly more than half of Suen’s bill, $593,000 out of $1.17 million, was for slides that helped explain his case and the cost of hiring a technician to ensure hundreds of pieces of evidence popped up on big-screen monitors on cue. The judge also OK’d thousands more for videotaped depositions and for synchronizing the written version with the voice, similar to movie subtitles. “I think members of a jury, most likely, are going to respect a more high-tech approach,” Mr Bare said. “I think they will connect with it.” The fact that Mr Suen also faced a major challenge in trying to prove a $328 million claim against a major player on the Las Vegas Strip and its prominent chairman and CEO, Sheldon Adelson, added more justification to spending so much, the judge said. A Las Vegas jury awarded Mr Suen $70 million for his work in helping LVS obtain its lucrative gaming license in booming Macau. Including interest, the total award came to $101.6 million and has been growing since the verdict was delivered at a rate of $8,400 a day. With the ruling on the expenses, Sands now has the go-ahead to launch an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, and the company has hired an appellate attorney, the Review-Journal said. Richard Suen