NORTH AMERICA
July 1, 2010
GENTING HAS BIG EYES FOR CASINOS IN U.S.
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Debt-free and armed with $1.7 billion in cash,
the casino arm of Malaysian conglomerate Genting is looking for action in the
United States.
Fresh off the opening
of its $4.7 billion Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, the company “is
aggressively searching for opportunities to invest in the U.S. casino gaming
market,” Justin Leong, head of strategic investments and corporate affairs at
the parent company, said in a recent interview with Bloomberg.
“Our
strategy,” he said, “is building a U.S. presence.”
Genting last month weighed into the New York City market
with a bid to operate a proposed 4,500-slot machine racino at
Aqueduct.
Last year, it bought $100 million of MGM Mirage’s
secured paper at a time when the Las Vegas Strip giant appeared to be teetering
on the edge of a Chapter 11 filing.
Genting has held investment talks with other large U.S.
casino companies dating back to December 2008, Leong said.
“I wish I had worked faster and done something
sooner.”
Leong, who joined the company in 2004 after a stint at
Goldman Sachs, is a nephew of Genting Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lim
Kok Thay and a grandson of founder Lim Goh Tong.
The family’s closely held Kien Huat Realty was a financier of Foxwoods Resort Casino back in the early ’90s and also holds 50 percent of
Empire Resorts, owner of Monticello Casino & Raceway in New York’s
Catskills Mountains. In May, the
company partnered with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to finance a proposed
casino in Massachusetts.
In its home base of
Malaysia, Genting’s gambling and leisure holdings include Casino de Genting in
the Genting Highlands mountaintop resort outside Kuala Lumpur. The company also
owns Star Cruises and Norwegian
Cruise Lines. In February, an affiliate opened Resorts World Sentosa, complete
with a Universal Studios theme park, as the first of Singapore’s two casino
megaresorts.
The company also is an investor in the Philippines and
owns the largest casino operator in the UK, Stanley
Leisure.
A UNIQUE AGREEMENT: BARONA AND LVS WILL SHARE PLAYERS
Southern California’s Barona
Resort & Casino is partnering with Las Vegas Sands on a unique joint-marketing
effort.
Under the agreement, select players at Barona and at
LVS’ Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip will be eligible to
receive reciprocal complimentary hotel, dining and gaming
deals.
“Our
frequent casino guests occasionally want the Las Vegas experience and their
gamblers occasionally want the San Diego experience,” said Barona’s General
Manager Rick Salinas.
To protect their
respective customer lists, the partnership is contracting with a third-party company
to send four mailings between now and the end of the year. Two will go to
Barona customers offering hotel stays and other amenities at Venetian and
Palazzo. The other two will go to the two Strip casinos offering them the same
at Barona.
“We’re not actually sharing the data bases,” Salinas
said.
Barona, located on reservation land in Lakeside, near
San Diego, is owned by the Barona Indian Tribe.
ISLE TURNS PROFIT WITH STRONG Q4
Isle of Capri Casinos said fourth-quarter net
income fell 66 percent, but the surprise profit was still far better than the
loss expected by analysts.
Isle earned net income of $4.9 million, or 15 cents per
share, for the three months that ended April 25. That compares to net income of
$14.6 million, or 46 cents per share, for the same period last year, when Isle
of Capri posted a gain of $57.7 million on the extinguishment of
debt.
Net revenue, which excludes promotional allowances from
total revenue, fell more than 5 percent to $268.8 million, down from $284.6
million.
Still, the results topped estimates. Analysts surveyed
by Thomson Reuters expected Isle of Capri to post a loss of 8 cents per share
with revenue $260.3 million.
For the full year, the company that owns and runs 14
casinos in Mississippi, Louisiana, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado and Florida, posted
a loss of $3.3 million, or 10 cents per share. That compares to prior-year net
income of $43.6 million, or $1.39 per share.
Net revenue fell nearly 10 percent to $999.8 million,
down from $1.11 billion in the 2009 fiscal year.
LONG ISLAND TRIBE CLOSER TO A CASINO
The Shinnecock Indians have
received formal recognition from the U.S. government, putting the tiny band closer
to owning a casino somewhere on Long Island and very possibly in the environs
of New York City.
“This is the most historic moment in
Shinnecock history,” trustee Lance Gumbs told The Associated Press in an
interview from the tribe’s 1,200-acre
reservation in Southampton, L.I., where about 500 members live in proximity to
some of the most expensive real estate in the world, home to Wall Street moguls
and Hollywood celebrities.
Gumbs said, “Any
discussion of a casino is a secondary thought.” But the Shinnecocks have been
seeking federal recognition for decades, at one point trying to circumvent the
approval process in federal court, but a judge rejected that effort in 2007. In
2003 the tribe broke ground on a casino only to get sued by local officials,
who were granted a federal injunction to stop the
development.
N.Y. Gov. David
Paterson told AP he supported federal recognition for the tribe, which has long
been recognized at the state level. To operate full-scale casino-style gambling
federal law requires a compact between
a tribe and its respective state spelling out the parameters of the operation.
New York desperately needs the money that would come from a revenue-sharing agreement, similar to a tax
on gambling win, the state is likely to require from such a compact.
State approval also
will be needed for the Shinnecocks
to operate their casino somewhere other
than on their recognized reservation, which may be considered too remote and is
likely to encounter local opposition. Paterson said he is open to negotiating
with them for a more suitable site. Several have been bandied about, including
Belmont Park racetrack in Queens and Nassau Coliseum.
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