Macau’s visitor tally for 2020 could see a year-on-year decline of over 90%, having already witnessed a decline of 87% in the first eight months, according to the Macau Government Tourism Organization.
Macau could suffer a 90 percent visitor decline for 2020 (Gambling Insider)
Industries around the globe have been forced to adjust their sales models under the influences of the coronavirus pandemic. Jumbo Technology has reconstructed its strategies and caught up with the trend of digitalization. Since the beginning of this year, Jumbo has intensively held a series of online product launch events via ZOOM and Google Meet.
In the past few months, Jumbo has been relentlessly developing new games and machines. In response to new business models emerging from the post-COVID era, Jumbo has not only enhanced the thrills of our games but also incorporated pandemic prevention protocols into the casino management systems. Keeping social distance between players and implementing contact tracing allows players to feel secure and protects the health of both the players and the front-line workers.
This season, Jumbo will launch a new series of gaming products, Long Yi Fa, aiming to bring its clients and players around the world a better gaming experience.
“Jumbo has stayed strong despite the pandemic. Although we couldn’t go on business trips nor hold exhibitions, JUMBO has taken full advantage of the online interaction platforms to introduce our new products to our clients” said Allen Hsu, Jumbo’s Associate Vice President of Business Development. Jumbo plans to continue launching new games via online platforms in areas, including Macau, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Cambodia, until the end of the year.
DFDL was established in 1994 to create an integrated legal and tax advisory firm, with in-depth knowledge of the jurisdictions where we are based. DFDL is the first leading international law firm specialized in emerging markets, with a regional legal and tax expertise developed throughout the Mekong region, with a dedicated focus on Southeast Asia. DFDL is one of the oldest foreign legal and tax firms in Myanmar and best placed to advise Asian and international companies on their investments in Myanmar.
Good morning.
It’s been billed as a US$15 billion smart city, powered by the latest in blockchain technology, but in reality, it has emerged as a major online gambling hub and the new home to many of the operations that fled Cambodia after the ban in that particular jurisdiction. It is Yatai City, which was formerly a small village in Myanmar known as Shwe Kokko, and we take a close look at what is really happening there. Moreover, we also cast our gaze at the Chinese giant, considering its success so far in emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic more quickly than most other nations. Don’t forget to also take a look at our latest infographic, detailing the state of global air travel as we move ever closer towards covid-19 recovery.
PH Resorts sets follow-on offer price at 32.8% discount
While most of the world continues to grapple with the economic fallout from Covid-19, figures released Monday indicate China has left the worst of the pandemic behind, with gross domestic product growth of 4.9 percent in Q3. There are indications also that economic activity has accelerated into the fourth quarter, with the key Golden Week holiday giving another shot in the arm. However, we’re not back to the races yet. A closer look at some of the underlying figures sound a note of caution against over-optimism when it comes to consumption.
BY THE NUMB3RS
In 2017, APEC economies recorded around 464.7 million tourist arrivals, equating to approximately 33% of global tourism arrivals. The pandemic has undoubtedly wreaked havoc across Asia’s most popular tourist hotspots, however, it appears that a recovery is starting to take shape.
DEEP DIVE
It’s been billed as a $15 billion smart city, powered by the latest in blockchain technology, but in reality, it has emerged as a major online gambling hub and the new home to many of the operations that fled Cambodia after a ban on the practice last year. Yatai City, which was formerly a small village known as Shwe Kokko, is based in Myanmar’s Karen state. It’s one of three such projects that are backed by Chinese investment and which have claimed to be part of China’s one belt one road initiative.
Blue Technology remains committed to understanding local requirements and working with our partners to develop games and solutions for ease of business. One such project is with Amatic Industries, where we developed 10+1 games on the machine hard drive, giving the operator the choice to select any one of these ten games + one feature game configuration.
Recently, AstroPay launched One Touch, the digital wallet that allows a frictionless journey for users who want to purchase online on international sites. Operators can easily access the benefits that this product offers from a single integration. They can identify users from a single code, allowing greater control over transactions and minimizing risk.
MEMBERSHIP | MAGAZINE | ASEAN | CAREERS
Prominent fantasy sports operator Dream11 has beaten another legal challenge in India, this time in the large northwestern state of Rajasthan. Once again, its services were protected by a ruling finding it to be a game of skill and not a game of chance.
Dream11 swats away Rajasthan HC challenge, court lends credibility to self-regulation body FIFS (Medianama)
Wynn Resorts has announced the appointment of Darnell Strom as an independent director to its board, effective October 14.
Wynn Resorts Announces New Appointment To Board Of Directors (press release)
![Global Air Travel Stats [Infographic]](https://agbrief.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/air-traffic-v3.png "Global Air Travel Stats [Infographic]")
In 2017, APEC economies recorded around 464.7 million tourist arrivals, equating to approximately 33% of global tourism arrivals. The pandemic has undoubtedly wreaked havoc across Asia’s most popular tourist hotspots, however, it appears that a recovery is starting to take shape.
To read about what jurisdictions in Asia are doing to fill the international arrival gap, read the latest edition of our AGBriefings, released on October 12, 2020.
It’s been billed as a $15 billion smart city, powered by the latest in blockchain technology, but in reality it has emerged as a major online gambling hub and the new home to many of the operations that fled Cambodia after a ban on the practice last year.
Yatai City, which was formerly a small village known as Shwe Kokko, is based in Myanmar’s Karen state. It’s one of three such projects that are backed by Chinese investment and which have claimed to be part of China’s one belt one road initiative.
Another is called the Saixigang Industrial Zone, which loosely translated means “surpass Sihanoukville,” and is led by convicted triad member Wan Kuok-koi, also known as “Broken Tooth.” He is now the chairman of the project’s key proponent company, Dongmei Group.
The third is backed by China’s Huanya International Holdings Group and the Association of Business Federations of Sihanoukville.
As the world, including Myanmar’s government, battled the Covid-19 crisis, these mega projects pushed ahead, raising concern from local people about the influx of Chinese nationals, a rise in organized crime and the impact on safety and security. The projects are in partnership with local armed militants in a state that has been fighting for independence from Yangon for decades.
“It is clear that the project will have little benefit for local Karen people,” said a report by the Karen Peace Support Network. “They will be displaced off their land, with few job prospects in the new development. Based on the experience of similar Chinese casino “SEZs” in Laos, the area is also likely to become a hub of criminality, drug trafficking and money laundering,” it wrote.
Yatai, which is backed by Hong Kong-based Yatai International Holding, was given permission in 2018 to build 59 luxury villas on 25.5 acres of land for $22.5 million. However, in 2019 it circulated a booklet to local residents outlining the scope of the development, which detailed plans covering 29,621 acres, with a $15 billion price tag. The first phase has already started.
After local outcry, Karen state officials carried out an inspection and ordered a temporary suspension of the project while further investigation was carried out. In practice, construction has continued unabated.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) called Yatai City one of the worrying developments, as “complex transnational networks of Chinese investors, forced out of Cambodia for illegal gambling activity, are relocating to Karen state to build three megacities as a hub for casinos”…
Yatai’s promotional materials suggest that 60 percent of the project’s revenue in the first three years will come from online gambling by operations targeted at Mainland China, USIP said. It put the potential size of the market at an annual $25 billion.
The non-partisan institute, founded by the U.S. Congress, said a list of companies operating within the Yatai New City Project is available online, with nearly a dozen feature names such as “entertainment,” “golden technology,” or “entertainment technology.” Several of the enterprises on the list match the names of companies operating casinos in Cambodia.
The authors of the report were not available for an interview.
Most of the casinos in Sihanoukville sprung up to house live dealer operations targeting Mainland Chinese. Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered them to shut down from the beginning of this year after pressure from China.
Dongmei held an investor presentation in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year at which it said the Saixigang project will reportedly house an industry incubator, a Chinatown-themed commercial street, a leisure/entertainment zone, a resort and hotel zone, a market for auction of precious stones, a large amusement park, an international logistics hub, and a new science city.”
Pledging a total investment of some $18 billion, Dongmei promised that “Myawaddy will surpass Cambodia’s Sihanoukville in only three years.”
The projects are also adopting blockchain technology to facilitate the movement of funds. Singapore’s Fincy signed an accord in March this year to pilot its app for the city’s residents and businesses for contactless payments and payroll disbursement. It announced it began the process of pulling out on Oct. 7th after a series of negative reports linking its app to online gambling.
“Fincy has at no point been involved in the recruitment of staff for the development of online gambling applications, nor have we developed or will develop in-app online gambling applications,” it said in a rebuttal of media allegations last week.
“Fincy has a zero tolerance approach to illegal activity, particularly with respect to the circumvention of national financial laws to carry out money laundering and illegal gambling.”
China has also sought to distance itself from the projects’ attempts to shelter under the umbrella of the giant “one belt, one road” scheme.
The Shwe Kokko New City in Myanmar’s Kayin state “is a third-country investment and has nothing to do with the Belt and Road Initiative”, the Chinese embassy in Myanmar said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Although there are several major investments underway in Myanmar, including railways and a deep sea port, Myanmar has been wary of wholeheartedly embracing Chinese investment.
China, which has been stepping up its efforts to clamp down on online gambling, has said it will step up its security cooperation efforts with Myanmar.
What began with some bad news headlines, then developed into a special probity hearing in New South Wales, and has now become a full-scale governance crisis for Crown Resorts, with the newly announced Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) investigation posing a particular threat.
Last month, AUSTRAC imposed a A$1.3 billion (US$920 million) penalty on the Westpac Banking Corporation for breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, notably the same law that has been cited in Crown Resorts’ case. The financial stakes for the company, should it be found to have operated in non-compliance with its responsibilities in relation to AML rules, are painfully high.
It is notable that it is Crown’s current flagship facility Crown Melbourne that is at the heart of the money laundering investigations, meaning that it is not simply the fate of the newly constructed tower, Crown Sydney, that is now in trouble.
It was not surprising, therefore, that Crown had a rough day on the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday, with its shares plummeting as much as 10 percent before ending the day down 8.2 percent at A$8.25.
Former AUSTRAC senior executive Gavin Durbin told ABC’s “The World Today” that casinos are a high-risk business for money laundering; and perhaps offering a grim view of what awaits the firm’s executives, he stated, “I personally worry about their lack of due diligence. There’s always been a problem around their high rollers and almost a wilful blindness. They don’t want to ask because the goose that lays the golden egg; you don’t want to kill it.”
He then added, “Frankly, it goes right to the top. The board and directors are ultimately responsible. That is very clear in the law.”
Meanwhile, Crown Chair Helen Coonan–one of the people right at the top–is back in the witness box at the New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) probity inquiry today, raising the prospect for further damaging revelations.
All of this comes just days before Crown Resorts’ Annual General Meeting on Thursday, where investors will have their own say about a board and management which allowed billionaire James Packer secret access and decision-making powers that had been hidden from them, provoked investigations from regulators, a hiding in the national and international media, and which has apparently been unable to make firm decisions that could serve as effective damage control.
The management Jeju Shinhwa World is locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with its employee labor union over allegedly deteriorating worker conditions and interference in protected labor union activities.
제주 최대 카지노 노사 갈등 증폭…”노조 방해” vs “사복근무 불법” (MT View)
제주신화월드는 부당노동행위 즉각 중단하라 (Seogwipo TV)
Asia Gaming Brief (AGB) is a news, market intelligence, events, and networking company focused on Asia Pacific’s rapidly expanding gaming industry.
© Copyrights as Blue Sky Venture Ltd. All rights reserved
