Mese: aprile 2024

Nagakov, operator of Naga World Casino Resort in Cambodia, confirmed to GGRA that it plans to launch a 20-table game zone aimed at “premium players for the public market” at the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth quarter.

“The new area will focus on premium players for popular markets, not junkets,” said management at the Hong Kong-listed company in response to GGRAsia’s inquiry.

“We expect the premium mass gaming zone to operate at the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter,” the spokesperson added.

Morgan Stanley Asia Inc’s latest note, containing information from the latest Morgan Stanley 2022 Virtual China Summit, cited comments from Nagakov’s management that “Naga 1’s restricted zones will be launched in the second half of 2022” which will help the gaming business recover in bulk.

Regarding the casino resort complex located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, the term “Naga 1” is about the original building (pictured, left) supplemented by further development nearby.

The resort’s promoter said the new premium gaming facilities include “relocation of large market gaming spaces” and “converting some food and beverage spaces into gaming spaces.”

“Table lows start at US$200 and can reach up to US$35,000,” Nagakov said. “The new region will provide opportunities to segment Nagakov’s players and better customer interaction with its service and host staff.”

Morgan Stanley said in a note that Nagakov expects sales of bulk table games and slots to grow sequentially in the second quarter after first-quarter sales reached 74% of the same period in 2019, or 74% of pre-pandemic deals.

However, the agency added that Morgan Stanley’s “reference VIP,” which it said accounted for 36% of Nagakov’s gross profit in 2019, was “still not recovered.”

Analysts Gareth Leung and Praveen Choudhary wrote, “This is because Singapore/Malaysia” visitor numbers “reached 12%/8% of 2019 levels in the first quarter of 2022 respectively.”

Analysts also said in March that the number of visitors from the sites was “15 per cent/9 per cent” over the same period in 2019.

“We note that the number of scheduled international flights to Phnom Penh has recovered from 9% at the end of January 2022 to 25% of pre-COVID levels from May 19 to 25.”

Nagakov posted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $60.5 million in the first three months of 2022. The figure was up 83.3% sequentially.

BY: 릴게임사이트

A Vietnamese official welcomed the inclusion on the list of 40 countries eligible to receive the China Outbound Tour Group business, a trade that had been suspended for about three years worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, starting Wednesday (March 15).

China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism released an approved list of 40 countries on Friday.

China Daily reported on the 24th that Peng Xituan, a cultural counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, met with Nguyen ̛o ̛ Nguyen Hoa, head of international cooperation under the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and said the two countries had enjoyed strong tourism cooperation even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mrs Hoa was mentioned to welcome China’s contribution to bilateral tourism cooperation.

Separately, Vietnam News Agency reported in an article published on Monday that China was the largest individual source market for tourists in Vietnam before the pandemic.

In 2019, Vietnam welcomed 5.8 million Chinese visitors, accounting for nearly 30% of foreign tourists. In the other direction, 4.5 million Vietnamese traveled to China that year, according to news media.

Vietnam has a casino industry, and all but one location is open to foreigners. In the fall, Vietnam and China agreed to promote bilateral cooperation on “cross-border gambling,” among several law enforcement topics.

Earlier, a total of 20 countries, which will take effect on Feb. 6, were put on the list of countries approved by China for international travel agencies. They included Asia-Pacific countries with casino industries: Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

In November, Cambodia and China agreed to step up cooperation, including efforts to crack down on online gambling and telecommunications fraud.

South Korea, a popular destination for Chinese tourists before the pandemic, has so far not been approved by China to resume group tours. Since China eased its COVID-19 response measures in early January, South Korean authorities have required visitors arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to be tested for COVID-19. Those requirements were lifted on March 11.

BY: 릴게임사이트

Global casino operator Genting Malaysia Bhd reported third-quarter net profit of 177.4 million yuan ($37.9 million), compared with a profit of 11.4 million yuan a year earlier. Its net profit rose 276.6% on a sequential basis, according to data submitted to Bursa Malaysia on Thursday.

Revenue for the three months to Sept. 30 was nearly 2.71 billion yuan, up 19.3% from a year ago. The figure was up 9.7% from the previous quarter.

Genting Malaysia operates Resorts World Genting, Malaysia’s only licensed casino property (seen in a file photo). The group also operates casinos in the United States, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom, and Egypt.

The group’s third-quarter adjusted earnings (EBITDA) before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization came to 747.6 million yuan, up 22.6% year-over-year and up 66.9% sequentially.

Revenue from the leisure and hospitality segment, which includes casino operations, was 2.65 billion yuan in the third quarter, up 19.6% year-over-year. That was up 10.5% quarter-over-quarter.

Some non-gaming resort businesses and Malaysian businesses, including the Genting Highland casino, accounted for 1.68 billion yuan in leisure and accommodation revenue in the third quarter.

Quarterly adjusted EBITDA for its Malaysian unit was 563.9 million MYR, up 26.7% year-over-year, and up 5.9% sequentially.

Genting Malaysia said in a separate announcement that higher profits recorded in Malaysia’s leisure and hospitality businesses in the July-September period were “mainly attributed to the overall higher business size registered in Resort World Genting’s gaming and non-gaming segments.”

The casino company said “operational costs were higher” during the reporting period “due to the ongoing increase in operations” at Resort World Genting.

Genting Malaysia said it was “cautious” about the short-term outlook for the leisure and hospitality industry.

“While macroeconomic concerns may be a significant factor in the effective recovery of the travel and tourism sectors, the positive outlook for international tourism is expected to persist,” the company said.

“The regional gaming market is expected to continue to recover as airline capacity and aviation connectivity in the region improves.”

Genting Malaysia also said it was “working to strengthen the resilience of our business in an increasingly challenging operating environment” in Malaysia.

“The group will optimize its return management and database marketing efforts to increase business volumes,” and increased visitor numbers to Resorts World Genting. “The ongoing upgrade and development efforts … It’s progressing well, with new product offerings and attractions to the pipeline,” he added.

BY: 슬롯머신

Paradise Co. Ltd and Grand Korea Leisure Co. (GKL), the foreign-only casino businesses operating in South Korea, reported their March and first-quarter earnings results on Tuesday, respectively. GKL also confirmed shareholder approval for a final cash dividend of 353 won (US$0.26) per share for 2023, in a separate filing with the Korea Exchange on Monday.

Paradise’s casino sales in the first quarter were just under W288.3 billion, up 55.4% year-over-year. Table drops in the first quarter were just under W1.73 trillion, up 36.8% year-over-year in 2023.

The company reported casino sales of 54.98 billion won in March, up 31.3% year-on-year, but down 31.5% month-on-month.

Table game sales rose 33.1% year-on-year to 50.92 billion won in March, but decreased 32.8% sequentially. Machine game sales rose 11.9% year-on-year to 4.06 billion won, but decreased 10.2% compared to February.

Paradise directly operates three of its locations: Walkerhill in Seoul, Paradise Jeju on Jeju Island, and Real Estate in the port city of Busan. It also has ventures with Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings for Paradise City Casino Resort in Incheon, near Korea’s main airport.

GKL reported a 12.9% year-over-year drop in casino revenue to W93.67 billion in the three months to March 31. Casino declines in the first quarter were W916.04 billion, up 21.5% from the same period in 2023.

Casino sales rose 19.9% sequentially to 40.39 billion won in March this year, up 4.4% year-on-year,

GKL’s monthly table game sales were just under W37.33 billion, up 19.7% month-on-month and up 4.3% in March 2023.

Machine game sales rose 22.7% sequentially to 3.06 billion won in March this year, and increased 4.8% year-on-year.

GKL operates three foreigner-only, seven-luck-branded casinos. Two are in the capital city of Seoul, and one is in the southeastern port city of Busan.

The company is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Korea.

BY: 릴게임사이트

Japanese leisure conglomerate Konami Group Corp said on Thursday that revenue in its gaming and systems division – including casino equipment – rose by 11.6 percent year-on-year in the fiscal first half to September 30. Such revenue was just above JPY19.10 billion (US$127.0 million), compared to JPY17.12 billion in the prior-year half.

The gaming segment recorded a profit of JPY3.12 billion in the reporting half, up 55.7 percent from a year earlier.

The gaming and systems division of the Japanese entertainment conglomerate’s business includes the supply of casino slot machines and casino floor management systems.

In the casino gaming segment, Konami Group operates outside Japan via Konami Australia Pty Ltd and U.S.-based Konami Gaming Inc.

Konami Gaming said recently that it had partnered with IT services provider Xailient Inc to introduce “SYNK Vision” facial recognition technology to the casino industry, including in the Asia-Pacific region.

Konami Group said in its Thursday announcement: “The North American market and Australian market are growing steadily. In other regions, the markets… are also moving toward recovery, especially led by [the] Asian market.”

The company said its slot cabinet Dimension series was “expanding its presence in the North American and Australian markets”. The group said it “primarily sold” its Dimension 27 and Dimension 49 cabinets in those markets.

The firm added that it had “introduced a variety” of functions to its casino-operations system, Synkros. Such features would “enhance and strengthen” the “appeal” of Synkros, including its “Money Klip” product, which enables cashless transactions.

Konami Group is also involved in the Japan-focused pachinko games segment, as well as in digital entertainment – including video games and mobile games – and sports.

Group-wide revenue for all activities in the period rose 3.7 percent year-on-year, to JPY153.85 billion in the six months to September 30.

Net profit for Konami Group in the period stood at just above JPY26.83 billion, up 35.2 percent from the prior-year period.

The group said it would pay a cash dividend of JPY62.0 per share for the fiscal second quarter to September 30, to be paid on November 25.

BY: 릴게임사이트

The Macau casino market’s daily run-rate for gross gaming revenue (GGR) for part of Chinese New Year (CNY) “likely hit the MOP1 billion-plus [US$124.1-million] mark for the first time in over four years,” said JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd in a Monday note.

“An apples-to-apples comparison is challenging as the print covers both lunar new year and pre-holiday lull periods,” observed analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li

Though they added: “Our back-of-the-envelope calculation… suggests daily GGR for the peak lunar new year holidays” on day four to day seven, “likely hit the MOP1 billion-plus mark for the first time in over four years, coming in above MOP900-million-plus run-rates during last Golden Week in October.”

That was a reference to a previous Chinese holiday peak encompassing the country’s National Day on October 1.

Citigroup said in Monday memo that daily GGR estimate for the Chinese New Year period was “largely in line” with its estimate. The institution had said in a February 1 memo it anticipated that after a pre Chinese New Year lull, Macau GGR would “reaccelerate to around MOP900 million per day from February 12 to February 17, the last six days” of the latest holiday period.

“Based on industry sources, VIP volumes were circa 10 percent to 14 percent higher month-on-month, while mass volumes were about 8 percent to 10 percent higher month-on-month,” stated Citigroup. “VIP hold rate appears to be below normal level,” it added.

JP Morgan stated in its post-holiday update: “We think the print implies mass GGR recovered to 120-percent-plus of 2019 lunar new year’s, about 10 percentage points higher than the pace of recovery in recent months.” That was a reference to the trading year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The two institutions said that based on their checks, GGR for the first 18 days of February was MOP12.5 billion, or MOP694 million per day. That represented “a circa 75 percent recovery versus the comparable period in 2019,” observed JP Morgan.

JP Morgan added it expected full-February GGR to rise 80-percent-plus year-on-year, to circa MOP19 billion, which would be “the highest run-rate (MOP650-million per day-plus) in over four years – versus MOP629 million per day in October – which in turn should drive first-quarter GGR to grow mid/high-single digits” sequentially, versus the brokerage’s prior estimate of 4 percent growth quarter-on-quarter.

Citigroup said it was “conservatively” keeping its February GGR forecast “unchanged at MOP19.5 billion”, circa 77 percent of February 2019.

BY: 파친코