Despite regulatory uncertainty and a relatively high risk profile, land-based operators will be closely watching developments across the Indochina region over the coming months.
Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar offer varying degrees of opportunity for operators keen to invest in the region.
“Southeast Asia is a hot market at the moment with lots of new development, especially in Vietnam and Cambodia,” Stephen J. Karoul, president and CEO of boutique casino consulting company Euro-Asia Consulting, LLC, told AGB.
But these markets are not without significant political and operational risk.
Perhaps the most appealing of the four is Vietnam.
“I think Vietnam has the greatest likelihood of moving towards a contemporary model of casino regulation, and it is certainly likely to elevate the standard of compliance above that of the other emerging jurisdictions around it,” David Green, former gaming practice director with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Macau and founder of gaming consultancy Newpage Consulting, told AGB.
The early signs...
This Dossier results from the “Life After POGOs” editorial project by Asia Gaming Brief which culminated with a pop-up digital forum on 9th December to discuss potentials ramifications in the industry.
Covid-19 forced the rapid and unexpected closure of venues across Australia, changing the operating environment with unprecedented speed and leaving managers scrambling to adapt...
The Philippines has extended a ban on flights from the U.K. following the discovery of a new strain of Covid-19, but said it won't ban other nations unless there is evidence of community transmission in that country.
Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi continues her appeal to local residents to support IR development, arguing that it is a “powerful means” to secure needed tax revenues for social costs and more.
The Malaysian government has reinstated the number of special lottery draws that can be carried out each year to 22, up from eight last year, to raise extra revenue following the pandemic.
Over the years, many of the answers have been remarkably prescient in their forecasts for the near-term direction of Asia’s gaming industry. However, we can safely say that no one came anywhere close to guessing
what 2020 may have had in store.
While nowhere in the world has escaped the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, Macau has been hit harder than most, with forecasts for gross domestic product to shrink more than 50 percent this year.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region was at a record high, on track to welcome 80 million visitors in 2019, generating some $90 billion in revenue.
