Inside Asian Gaming

May 2014 inside asian gaming 93 nightclub, three restaurants, MICE facilities and a 1,500-seat performing arts center. The construction is expected to create more than 1,600 jobs. One Hundred Sands also is approved for a gaming resort in the capital of Suva. Fiji, with a population of about 875,000, lies some 1,100 miles north of New Zealand. England’s FA Seeks Betting Ban The English Football Association is moving to ban its members from betting on any match in the world. The blanket prohibition was unanimously recommended by the FA Council and will take effect next season if approved at the association’s annual general meeting this month, according to a report by The Associated Press . It will “encompass all aspects of world football” and “provides a simple and straightforward message to all participants on where the line is drawn,” FA director of football governance and regulation Darren Bailey said. Players, coaches and officials currently are only banned from betting on matches in competitions involving their teams. But under the new regulations anyone in the top eight divisions in England could be banned from “betting, either directly or indirectly, on any football match or competition anywhere in the world”. The crackdown follows a string of scandals, the latest involving the firing of third-tier Tranmere’s manager Ronnie Moore, who admitted to breaching betting rules. Newcastle United’s Dan Gosling, who recently returned to the club after a loan spell, has admitted to an FAmisconduct charge. Stoke striker Cameron Jerome, who is on loan at Crystal Palace, was fined last year for breaking the regulations, as was Tottenham winger Andros Townsend, who was forced to pull out of England’s team for the European Under-21 Championship for a violation. The FA, though, has an official betting sponsor and coach Roy Hodgson named his most recent squad in front of a backdrop for William Hill. The new rules would prevent Hodgson using William Hill to bet on football. Packer Eyes Bid for Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas James Packer’s CrownResorts is weighing a bid for The Cosmopolitan on the Las Vegas Strip. Industry sources believe Crown will lodge an expression of interest for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a three-year-old casino complex owned by Deutsche Bank and located between MGM Resorts International’s Bellagio and its CityCenter resort complex. Crown would not comment, according to the Brisbane Times , but sources close to the process said the Australian gaming giant controlled by Mr Packer would be among several entities lodging expressions of interest for the 3,000-room, 3.6-hectare resort, which has amassed losses of US$298 million since opening three years ago in the teeth of the recession. Deutsche Bank inherited the property in January 2008 when on the eve of the global financial crisis it foreclosed on American developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who had defaulted on a loan. Getting it built and open ultimately cost the bank upwards of $4 billion. The Cosmopolitan is expected to fetch $1.5 billion-$2 billion in a sale. Mr Packer’s bid would mark his second attempt to crack the US market. The Crown chairman was badly burned by a big investment on the Strip made just before the financial crisis. He later described it as one of his biggest strategic mistakes. Crown is a much stronger company now, though, thanks mainly to its 33% stake in Macau’s Melco Crown Entertainment, and the company is in an aggressive expansion mode, pursuing a $1.3 billion luxury casino in Sydney, a license in Brisbane and a $400 million casino hotel in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. The Melco Crown joint venture is slated to open a multibillion-dollar resort casino in Manila later this year. Japan is also in its sights, and Mr Packer and his Melco partner Lawrence Ho say they’re prepared to invest $5 billion in a resort either in Tokyo or Osaka. Fiji Casino Breaks Ground Construction has started on a US$290 million resort casino in Fiji, the first ever for the South Pacific archipelago. The developer, a local hospitality company called One Hundred Sands, says the project, which has experienced several delays since the government approved it in 2011, will open in mid-2015 on the island of Denarau under an exclusive 15-year license. Plans call for 200 hotel rooms and villas, a spa, pools, a Artist’s impression of the planned casino and convention center on the island of Denarau in Fiji The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS