It’s 15 years since Macau flung open its arms to international gaming companies and major US operators wasted little time heading to the Far East to plant their flags firmly in the ground.
Casino gaming in Macau exploded, while gleaming IR’s have since sprouted up across many parts of Asia. Interestingly, though, Asian, US and Australian gaming operators have been behind most of the multibillion-dollar developments; European companies were conspicuous by their absence during this boom. And this is still the case today. One explanation is the sheer scope and cost of most projects.
“There wasn’t a cadre of European companies with the experience of these multi-faceted, multi-market resorts, who could take advantage in Asia,” says Fredric Gushin, managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group.
Indeed, while American operators could demonstrate that they had built and managed large-scale IR’s, Europe’s casinos are predominantly smaller, gaming-centric properties.
Warwick Bartlett, CEO of Global Betting and Gaming...
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...
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga oversaw a central government meeting on Friday which confirmed the outlines and the timeline of the nation’s IR development policy. He promised that it would be carried out with “fairness and transparency.”
Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A. says its eligible employees will receive Living Subsidies equivalent to 2 months or 1.5 months of salary. The Living Subsidies will be made in two equal payments in January and July respectively, with the first payment to be made on 6 January 2021.
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.
