Harrah's Entertainment, the newly crowned world's biggest gaming firm, said on Monday it had its sights on a stake in booming Macau even as it competes for two casino licenses in Singapore.
Harrah's senior vice president for business development, Richard Mirman, told reporters in Singapore that the company intended to use the city-state as a base to expand throughout Asia, with Macau being one of the most enticing prospects in the region.
"Macau is one of the largest gaming markets in the world. It's hard for a company like ours ... not to consider an opportunity [in Macau]," Mirman said on the sidelines of the Asian Casinos Expo.
PHOTO: EPA
"That being said, we're more interested right now in Singapore as the jumping-off point in Asia. But it's really hard to ignore the opportunity in Macau. It's just a tremendous gaming market and one that continues to grow year over year," he said.
Macau, the former Portuguese enclave that reverted to Chinese rule in 1999, has become the world's hottest gambling den after authorities lifted a decades-old gambling monopoly in 2002.
Three licenses were awarded -- one to former monopoly holder Stanley Ho, while US giants MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands won the rights to be the first foreign competitors.
Since then, Macau has been transformed from a seedy, gambling backwater into Asia's Las Vegas, with the industry expected to be worth US$7.5 billion this year.
Mirman said the restriction of three licenses was the major obstacle for Harrah's, which last week acquired US rival Caesars for US$6.8 billion to form the biggest gaming company in the world.
"We now have the leading brand in the world under Caesars and we think the Caesar's brand would fit into Macau very nicely," he said.
"[But] there are no licenses to bid on ... there are sub concessions, but it is a very tricky problem to solve," he said.
Asked if Harrah's was holding discussions with authorities in Macau on how to enter the market, Mirman replied: "I don't have any comment on that ... but we are always interested in Macau."
In Singapore, where 12 international and global firms are competing to build the city-state's first two casinos, Mirman said that Harrah's was still bidding for both licenses and he expected smaller rivals to soon drop out of the race.
"When you are talking about US$2 billion [to develop a casino resort], that actually cuts out many people ... there are only a few players who have access to that kind of capital," he said.
Among the 12 players bidding for the casinos, which are due to be built by around 2009, are Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts, Australia's Tabcorp and Malaysia's Genting International.
Mirman said Harrah's was also keenly anticipating other countries in the region to follow the lead of Singapore and allow casinos.
"I think that once people see what they [Singapore] are doing and the level of interest and the kind of investment and the driving of tourism and jobs, I'd be hard pressed to believe that other countries in the region are not going to open up," he said.
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