The Macau Metro Monitor, November 20, 2012
RELOCATION OF SLOT MACHINES PARLOR OUTSIDE COMMUNITY TO BE LEGALIZED Macau Daily News
The Macau govt will draft laws to regulate the location, features, rules and operations of gaming venues, in an attempt to resolve gaming related problems, such as removing slot machines venues away from the community. Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam said the government will soon roll out the definition for ‘gaming zones’ and ‘non-gaming zones’ in 2013, in which case, gaming venues within gaming zones will need to be relocated.
The government is going to strengthen gaming supervision in 2013 to push ahead the development of gaming business in a moderate and orderly manner. Efforts will be made to cap the commissions for junket promoters to no higher than 1.25% of the total bets. The database of junket promoters will continue to be improved and the minimum internal control requirements should be carried out on a sustainable basis.
FIRST CASINO BEING BUILT IN FAR EAST GAMBLING ZONE RIA Novosti, Las Vegas Review Journal
According to the administration of the Primorye Region, the construction of a first casino and a hotel has begun in the Far Eastern gambling zone. The first stage of the Primorye gambling zone project, due to be completed by 2015, is supervised by the region’s governor Vladimir Miklushevsky. Plans call for 12 casinos with the first phase of a three-part rollout to be completed by 2016 and a planned total investment of about $2 billion. “The gambling zone itself is not the most important thing, but it is like an anchor. In the modern tourism business, income from the gambling zone itself makes from 30 to 40% of all tourism revenues. The rest comes from other sources, such as amusement parks and shopping centers,” Miklushevsky said.
Vladivostok is one of the four regions allocated by the Russian government to have gaming. The mountainous region bordering China and Korea is roughly a two-hour flight from Seoul or Tokyo.
COTAI BOUTIQUE CASINO HOTEL TO ISSUE SHARES IN HONG KONG Macau Business
The project for a boutique casino hotel in Cotai, just next to One Oasis residential project, is one step closer to becoming a reality. The investors are eyeing to inject the project into Hong Kong-listed construction and property management company Paul Y. Engineering Group Ltd, PYE for short, and then use the company as a platform to raise capital.
According to a PYE stock filing dated from yesterday, there is already has an agreement to buy the land needed for the casino hotel from the developers of the One Oasis residential project. The total estimated cost of the project is HK$6 billion (US$774 million), including the cost of the land. To help fund the project, there are plans to raise up to HK$800 million through a stock placement. An additional HK$2.4 billion will be raised through issuing convertible bonds.
Stephen Hung, the vice chairman of Rio Entertainment Group, the holding company that operates Rio Hotel & Casino on the peninsula, has already indicated his intention to subscribe for HK$200 million worth of placing shares and/or placing convertible bonds. Construction could start early next year in order for the property to be ready by 2016. In the stock filing, it is not disclosed under which casino operator’s gaming licence the casino would operate.
The boutique casino hotel, to be built on a 6,000-square meter plot, is projected to have 66 live gaming tables.
MONTHLY BREAKDOWN OF PASSENGER MOVEMENTS Changi Airport Group
Singapore's Changi airport saw passenger traffic rise 10% in October.
