Casino News Media

Friday, June 5, 2009

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Wynn sued after gamble by NZ pair on the run - Macau Daily Times - 30th May 2009

The New Zealand couple who fled after being wrongly accredited with 10 million New Zealand dollars, around 43 million patacas, by Westpac Bank might have spent part of the money at the gambling tables in Wynn Macau. The Westpac bank is taking legal action against Wynn International Marketing, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wynn Resorts according to New Zealand media reports.

The bank did not explain why Wynn was named in the court papers a New Zealand Herald newspaper report said.

According to South China Morning Post, New Zealand police were reportedly seeking help from the central government in this case. (Credit: Macau Daily Times)

Casino News Media Profiles

Casino News

Stanley Ho calls it a 'joke' - Macau Daily Times - 30th May 2009

Casino tycoon Stanley Ho has dismissed as “a joke” a recent report by US gambling regulator which accused him of having “ties to Asian organised crime”. According to South China Morning Post yesterday, Ho stepped up his criticism of a report by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, released last week which advised MGM Mirage not to enter with businesses with is daughter, Pansy Ho, who was deemed “unsuitable” because her father had links with organised crime in Asia. Ho said last week that he had a lot of money and had no reason to get involved in illegal activities. (Credit: Macau Daily Times)

Casino News Media Profiles

Casino News

Virgin Games Delivers The Ultimate Gaming Experience

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - June 1, 2009)

Today Virgin Games, the online gaming service, announces that it has centralised its offerings and has become an operating company in its own right working from one common platform. This development will provide a streamlined customer experience by offering players the opportunity to play across multiple gaming products using a central sign on solution and a single Virgin Games wallet. The operation of Virgin Games gaming service was formerly outsourced to three different operators; Wagerworks for Casino; Boss Media for Poker and St.Minver for Bingo. The operation on the new Virgin Games platform has now been taken in-house and will be managed centrally from their head office in Guernsey.

With the Virgin customer experience being of core importance, players now only need to register once to become a Virgin Games player and browse seamlessly through all of the games at Virgin Poker, Virgin Casino and Virgin Bingo. Additionally, under the new system, Virgin players will be able to play for bonus promotions and Virgin Games loyalty points, V-Points, across all games offered.

The strategic shift to become a fully fledged gaming operator has taken place at Virgin Games over the last 18 months. The company now operates using two gaming licenses held in Alderney and Malta and runs an in-house customer service call centre as well as owning and co-ordinating player databases and payment processing systems. The 24/7 customer experience solution will bring all consumer touch points together in-house including telephone, email and web-chat communication resulting in greater control, improved efficiency and an all round excellent customer experience.

Simon Burridge, CEO Virgin Games, comments: "In developing and taking ownership of the new customer experience program, we have focused on creating the best possible value and service for our customers. Here at Virgin Games, we live and breathe the Virgin brand values and feel taking the customer service department in-house and integrating all three gaming services allows us to continue to deliver the unique Virgin experience that our customers have come to expect."

"Our players have told us that they would like to see a wider range of games at Virgin Games and we intend to give them exactly what they're looking for. There have been some very exciting new games brought into the market recently and we look forward to introducing them into the Virgin Games product offering" said Burridge.

For more information on Virgin Games please visit www.virgingames.co.uk.

Notes to Editors:

About Virgin Games
Virgin Games launched in June 2004 and has quickly established itself as one of the leading gaming websites in the UK. Virgin Games comprises four distinct offerings:
- Virgin Casino, part of the Wagerworks network, brings consumers classic casino offerings like blackjack and roulette, as well as great feature slots like Monopoly, Cluedo, Dungeons and Dragons Fortress of Fortunes(TM) and the highly popular MegaJackpots progressive games, with a seeding value of Pounds Sterling 1,500,000
- Virgin Poker, part of the Boss Media network, offers a huge array of games and content for beginners through to experienced pros Texas Hold em, Five card Stud Poker and more - as well as the most generous loyalty scheme in the industry
- Virgin Bingo, part of the Virtue Fusion network, offers cash prizes worth thousands of pounds in the progressive jackpots, as well as Virgin prize bingo and a range of unique Virgin Games bingo games.

For more information, please contact
Nelson Bostock Communications
Melissa Robinson
020 7792 7436
melissa.robinson@nelsonbostock.com

or

Nelson Bostock Communications
Lucinda Pride
020 7792 7471
lucinda.pride@nelsonbostock.com

Profiles

Virgin Games

Virgin Casino

Virgin Bingo

Virgin Poker

Virgin Casino News

Online Casino News

Casino News

James Packer's Macau dream rocks on, by Andrew Carswell - Herald Sun - 2nd June 2009

His fortune may have shrunk by billions of dollars but James Packer has opened the doors to what is arguably his biggest gamble yet.

Amid fanfare and fireworks, the first chips went down at the $2.9 billion City of Dreams - Mr Packer's second joint-venture casino to be built in Macau, the former Portuguese colony bordering southern China.

The increasingly reclusive billionaire stepped back into the spotlight last night to cut the ribbon to the new casino, alongside his chief partner in Melco Crown Entertainment, Lawrence Ho.

Christening one of its centrepieces, the Hard Rock Hotel, Mr Packer and Mr Ho smashed guitars hours before last night's celebrity-studded opening bash.

The City of Dreams stares directly across Macau's glitzy Cotai Strip at the Venetian, the world's biggest casino.

The property - almost 40,000 square metres - features 2000 gaming machines and tables, three hotels, a huge shopping, restaurant and entertainment precinct, and a spectacular multi-media attraction dubbed The Bubble.

"It is a crucial project," Lawrence Ho said.

"What is good for us . . . is good for our competitors and is good for Macau."

Experts believe there is much riding on the performance of the City of Dreams.

While Mr Packer has remained tight-lipped about the forecasts for the City of Dreams, Mr Ho has been brutally honest about the high-stakes game the men are playing in the middle of a global recession.

A poor reception for it may spell "the endgame for us," Mr Ho said last month.

"The investment case (for Melco Crown) basically comes down to how City of Dreams goes, so if you want to call it a sink-or-swim moment, well I guess it is," an analyst told BusinessDaily.

"Across the road you have the Venetian. That does about $500 million a year (in pre-tax earnings). The market is generally expecting City of Dreams to do $300 million. If it does that it's a success."

Since taking his late father Kerry's fortune above $6 billion, Mr Packer's net wealth has plummeted to $3 billion in the past year as shares in his divided kingdom - Crown Ltd and Consolidated Media Holdings - halved.

He is now only ranked the sixth richest Australian.

As well as Mr Packer staking much of his fortune on the venture, City of Dreams will be seen as an all-important test case for the future of Macau's gaming industry.

A 40-minute boat ride from Hong Kong, Macau now takes more gambling dollars than Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined.

But an attempt last year to stem the flow of visitors from mainland China dealt a dud hand to casino operators and put the brakes on the growth of the industry.

Mr Packer and Mr Ho hold a licence to build a third casino in Macau, but they remain publicly uncommitted to plans as yet. (Credit: Herald Sun)

Media Man Australia Profiles

James Packer

City of Dreams

Crown Casino

Australian Casino News

Casino News

Packer bets big on Dreams of Macau, by Miriam Steffens - The Sydney Morning Herald - 2nd June 2009

As James Packer's $US2.4 billion ($A3 billion) City of Dreams casino opened with great fanfare in Macau last night, after more than three years under construction, it marked the biggest gamble for the 41-year-old billionaire in his global gambling expansion.

A lot is riding on the success of the 39,000-square-metre casino built on a former swamp in the gaming mecca.

It is designed to be the flagship of Mr Packer's Asian gambling empire which he is building with Lawrence Ho, son of the Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho.

At stake are not only about $US500 million Crown has invested in its 36 per cent shareholding in the venture, but Mr Packer's reputation as a businessman, which has been bruised as his wealth more than halved over the past year in the global financial meltdown and after a series of ill-fated US casino investments.

But the opening of the prestige casino, which features a shopping precinct, its own bubble-shaped theatre, and close to two dozen restaurants and bars, comes at a challenging time. Travel demand to Macau has been hurt by the world recession and headwinds from Beijing, which last year imposed new visa restrictions to limit the number of mainland Chinese gambling in the former Portuguese colony.

Macau's gambling revenue and visitor arrivals fell every month except one between January 2008 and April. Melco Crown Entertainment, the Packer-Ho venture, posted a first-quarter loss of $US35.3 million, down from a profit of $US43.2 million a year earlier, as the decline in visitors hurt revenues at its first Macau casino, the Altira, which opened in 2007.

City of Dreams, located opposite Las Vegas Sands' huge Venetian Macao complex, starts out with about 520 table games, 1350 gaming machines and two hotels — Crown Towers and the Hard Rock Hotel — with a combined 600 guest rooms. A third hotel with 800 rooms should be finished later this year.

That compares with 350 gaming tables and about 1000 hotel rooms at Melbourne's Crown Casino, which will be expanded to about 1600 rooms by mid-2010.

With BLOOMBERG

(Credit: The Age)

Media Man Australia Profiles

James Packer

City of Dreams

Altira Macau

Crown Casino

Casino Travel

Australian Casino News

Casino News

Monday, June 1, 2009

Packer confident of his Macau gamble - The Australian - 30th May 2009

On Monday morning, James Packer will wake up in Macau to his moment of truth.

In the 3 1/2 years since the death of his legendary father, Kerry, Packer has transformed the family empire from one focused predominantly on media into the international casinos conglomerate Crown.

Monday's opening of Macau's City of Dreams casino -- one of the Chinese territory's most opulent and expensive -- is a crucial psychological marker on whether that transformation has been successful.

One of Packer's close confidants told The Weekend Australian this week the 42-year-old "always had a real belief in Macau and he's backed his belief". "City of Dreams is the culmination of that," the friend says. "It will be the jewel in the crown, in terms of size, of all of his casinos."

But with size comes risk. Packer has bet hundreds of millions of dollars of his money -- but more importantly his reputation as a major player on the international gaming scene alongside casino legends Stanley Ho, Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson -- on Macau.

Packer and Stanley Ho's son, Lawrence Ho -- his partner in the Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture behind the casino -- unveiled their plans for City of Dreams in the midst of an unseemly rush to develop a new Asian Las Vegas.

But today, such developments face pretty strong headwinds. In particular, gaming revenues in Macau are under pressure as the financial crisis and restrictions on Chinese citizens travelling to the former Portuguese colony bite. Even major players, such as the Las Vegas Sands, have reportedly delayed projects. Packer's fortunes have certainly fallen in line with the global crisis, with BRW magazine this week estimating his worth at $3 billion, down from $6.1 billion this time last year and the $7.3 billion he reportedly inherited from his father.

Still, Crown shares, of which the Packer family owns 36 per cent, have rallied strongly ahead of the City of Dreams opening. The run was spurred in part by Crown's escape from a proposed $US1.75 billion ($2.2 billion) takeover of Cannery Casino Resorts in the US. But one source close to Packer describes him as "quietly confident" about the future of City of Dreams. "I think we benefited from the fact there are a hell of a lot of cranes up there on unfinished projects," he says. "It is the only big new casino opening, and it will be the only one for some time."

The importance of Monday night's spectacular opening ceremony and first few months of trading are not lost on Melco Crown finance chief Simon Dewhurst. "City of Dreams is our flagship development," he says.

"It has consumed over 60 per cent of our investment capital and it represents our first opportunity in Macau to compete for the integrated resort middle ground that represents the future for the market. The opening of CoD marks the culmination of more than six years hard work. We are taking a transformational step from being primarily a development company, to being primarily an operating company."

Crown chief Rowen Craigie agrees the opening of City of Dreams represents "a major milestone". He says: "City of Dreams will be an exciting and attractive property and will benefit from being the only major casino entertainment complex to open in Macau in 2009."

City of Dreams, on Macau's popular Cotai strip, will be Melco Crown's second in the territory, following the opening of the $US760 million Crown Macau (now the Altira Macau) in 2007.

Analysts say City of Dreams is the first casino in Macau to break the $US2billion investment threshold. Its opening will be the culmination of a process that started before Kerry Packer's death when James settled on Macau as the first focal point of his global gaming ambitions.

In November 2004, Packer struck a joint venture agreement with the Hong Kong-listed leisure and entertainment group, Melco Development, run by Lawrence Ho. While there was little concrete announced at the time, it was soon made clear the joint venture company had big plans.

Once his father died in December 2005, Packer moved quickly to transform what was then the media-driven Publishing and Broadcasting Limited into a gaming empire. This transformation was highlighted late in 2006 with the top-of-the-market sale of PBL Media -- owner of the Nine Network and ACP Magazines -- to private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific for more than $5billion, just before the value of the assets started to decline amid both structural and cyclical change.

The PBL empire was left as largely a casino-focused one, and a subsequent split of the group in 2007 saw the casino assets hived off into the new casinos group, Crown.

But the move that signalled Packer's serious intent for gaming in Macau was his joint move with Melco just three months after his father's death to buy Macau's last available casino sub-concession from Wynn, the US casino entrepreneur, for $US900 million. The move cemented Packer and Ho as major players at the table of Macau's casino industry.

Altira Macau and City of Dreams are now held through Melco Crown Entertainment, which is listed on the Nasdaq index in the US and counts Crown as a 36.4 per cent shareholder.

Since 2006, Crown has also made a series of casino purchases independent of the Melco Crown venture in North America. These include stakes in the US-based Fontainebleau Resorts, Canada's Gateway Resorts group, Stations Casino Group and Harrah's Entertainment, underlining Packer's intense focus on gaming assets.

With the fall-off in casino values worldwide since the purchases, critics -- acting with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight -- have questioned the wisdom of his moves in both Macau and North America shortly before the global economic downturn. Even Crown's Rowen Craigie reportedly admitted earlier this year that the group had bought some of its US assets at the top of the market.

Crown's woes in the US were on full display in the company's interim profit result, with the group posting a reported net loss of $409.7 million due to a non-recurring $454.9 million writedown to the value of its minority US casino investments -- namely Fontainebleau, Stations and Harrah's.

But Packer's supporters assert that while there has been a fall in value of the US ventures in particular, he is well up on his Macau investments. After its $US45 million investment in Melco Crown's $US180 million capital raising this month, Crown has now invested a total of $US500 million in the group. That stake is now worth more than $US1 billion. Friends point out that Packer has effectively doubled his money and, in the process, gained a major say in a business that has two casinos fully funded, one of only six casino licences in Macau, and assorted hotels, retail complexes and entertainment venues supporting the casinos.

Melco Crown is not without problems. It booked a March quarter net loss of $US35.3 million, compared to a profit of $US43.2 million for the same period last year, prompting Ho to admit the casino market was not out of the woods yet. One analyst noted that Crown Macau had a "very poor opening" in 2007, with Packer's reputation suffering as a result. City of Dreams, he says, represents "a very critical moment".

Then again, Deutsche Bank last week raised its price target on Melco Crown from $US4.40 to $US6 a share, saying it was "now more confident on the success of City of Dreams after we walked through the property early this month".

City of Dreams certainly sounds impressive. Ho promises the water- and fantasy-themed complex will be a "next-generation resort like no other in Asia, or perhaps the world".

Located directly opposite the biggest casino in Macau -- the Las Vegas Sands Venetian Macau -- it will boast several distinctly branded casino floors, three world-class hotels and a shopping precinct to be known as The Boulevard.

On Monday, Melco Crown opens the first phase of that project, which will include the Crown Towers and Hard Rock hotels, 20 bars and restaurants, The Boulevard, plus a casino with 520 gaming tables (a third of which will be VIP) and 1350 gaming machines. It will be the only major casino to open in Macau this calendar year.

The casino's Bubble Theatre will feature a 10-minute "Dragon's Treasure" multi-media lights show. Theatre of Dreams, a 2000-seat theatre, will feature a Cirque Du Soleil-style water production when it opens in the December half. By December, the third hotel, the Grand Hyatt, will open, giving the complex a total of 1400 rooms. And there is even the future prospect of a further apartment development in the complex, subject to Macau regulatory approval. Melco's Dewhurst says Melco Crown is "very confident". He says: "We have spent a very significant amount of time, energy and resource into understanding what's working and what's not working throughout the market. We think City of Dreams is right."

Success for Melco Crown and City of Dreams will come down to a number of things. But one key measure will be foot traffic. "We expect that we will have something in the order of 35,000 guests a day passing through the property," Dewhurst says. "I have no doubt that we will have in excess of that number on the first day. In the first 100 days what's important for us is that on any of those 100 days we see that volume of traffic into the building."

In the current climate, that could be a challenge. Its performance will hinge on the recovery of the Asian economy -- and in particular how quickly Asian high-rollers return to the territory's casinos after the tough recent times.

Credit Suisse analyst Gabriel Chan said in a note last week that "with concerns about swine flu remaining vital, and signs that the recovery pace of the Chinese economy may have slowed, we see certain execution risks for the opening".

Indeed, visitor numbers to Macau, as recorded by the Statistics and Census Service, were down 3.5 per cent in April from the same period last year and steady over the previous month. Visitors from mainland China were down 13.5 per cent year on year.

Gaming revenues have suffered as a result of weaker visitor arrivals, but the pace of the decline has stabilised in the past few months. And there are hopes, from Ho down, for a swift rebound, partly driven by the buzz from the City of Dreams opening.

Some analysts believe that as Macau's most expensive casino, City of Dreams may be able to take market share from other players.

Janet Brashear, senior gaming analyst with US investment house Sanford C. Bernstein, says she expects City of Dreams to "make a splash, garnering $US1.4 billion in gross gaming revenues in 2010 and a 10 per cent share of the market". She also predicts City of Dreams could cannibalise the market share of some of its competitors in Macau, such as the Venetian Macau and Wynn resort.

For analysts, success will come down to one thing -- City of Dreams achieving an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $US300 million in the first year.

"You look across the road at the Venetian and they're doing about $US120 million EBITDA a quarter -- $US500 million a year," says one analyst. "So you would have thought $US300 million would be achievable for City of Dreams."

If City of Dreams achieves better than that -- say $US500 million a year -- then it will be a strong position against its rivals. There is growing speculation that casino giant MGM may have to sell its Macau interests after US regulators raised concerns about its local joint venture partner, Pansy Ho -- the daughter of Stanley and brother of Lawrence. Las Vegas Sands is also looking to sell some plots.

One close Packer confidant is hedging his bets ahead of Monday's event. He says: "On the assumption that the Macau economy will start to improve, Melco and City of Dreams are going to be in a very good place." (The Australian)

Media Man Australia Profiles

James Packer

City of Dreams

Crown Casino

Macau

World Casino Directory

Property News

Financial News

Casino News

Casino Travel

Casino Travel Media

Property News Media

Casino News Media

Australian Casino News

James Packer's biggest casino venture opens in Macau today - The Daily Telegraph - 1st June 2009

It is arguably James Packer's biggest and boldest venture, a key pillar in the man's grand plan of global gaming dominance. And it opens today.

It is the much-hyped City of Dreams, a colossal casino resort on Macau's glitzy Cotai Strip and the second instalment from Melco Crown (MPEL), the company jointly owned by Packer's Crown Limited, and Melco.

There is no disputing the fanfare with which the grandiose complex will open, but what is a hot topic is whether the venture will be a success.

The timing, amid a global meltdown and hampered by a forced slowdown of tourists entering Macau, is not helpful.

But it does have one key advantage. It is the only casino opening in Macau this year, after much-larger projects were postponed.

One gaming analyst told The Daily Telegraph the City of Dreams "was a sink or swim moment" for MPEL.

But UBS analysts believes product offering, and most surprisingly timing, will make City of Dreams a success.

"Against the context of limited supply growth, improving market revenue trends, and City of Dream's scale and product, MPEL is arguably in the right place at the right time," the analysts said in a report.

Melco Crown suffered an inglorious start to life in Macau with Crown Macau failing to attract the punters due to its location and public perceptions that the complex had Feng Shui design issues.

Recently reborn as Altira Macau, the complex has since flourished thanks to the significant revenue generated by VIP gamblers ferried in from Hong Kong.

MPEL does hold a licence to build a third casino complex in Macau, but has not committed to plans as yet. (Credit: The Daily Telegraph)

Media Man Australia Profiles

James Packer

City Of Dreams

Casino News

Casino Travel

Casino Travel Media

World Casino Directory

Macau

Financial News

Property News

Australian Casino News

Friday, June 5, 2009