ASIA & OCEANIA
Having shutdown PhilWeb last month, PAGCOR continues to cut a swathe through the local gaming market with bingo sites now due for closure
PHILIPPINES LAND-BASED GAMING PAGCOR Orders Closure of 53 Bingo Halls
PAGCOR (Te Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp) has told Leisure & Resorts World Corp. that it must shut 53 bingo sites due to their proximity to schools and churches.
MACAU– Despite the economic downturn, the Hong Kong Jockey Club enjoyed another outstanding year, with overall turnover for the financial year (ending 30 June 2016) at just over HK$202.70bn, up by almost six per cent. Racing turnover for the financial year was up by 1.8 per cent to just over HK$107bn. Football turnover was up by 10.9 per cent to HK$86.80bn while the Mark Six, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, reversed last year’s small decline to record a 9.9 per cent increase to HK$8.55bn.
The Club made another record return to Government of HK$20.91bn in duty and profits tax and contributed HK$1.28bn to the Lotteries Fund. Charitable contributions set another record of HK$3.90bn. The Club’s Chairman, Dr Simon S O Ip, pointed out that the record HK$3.90bn donated to 215 charities and community projects was double the sum donated three years ago. Moreover, the Club’s Charities Trust has been recognised by the World Charity Index 2015 as the sixth largest non- government funder in the world and largest in Asia.
“This substantial increase in commitments has been accompanied by an equally significant transformation in the way we address community needs”, Dr Ip said. “The Charities Trust now actively collaborates with all sectors of the community, creating opportunities for, and more importantly encouraging, multi-sector participation. Our objective is to maximise available resources in our community and optimise outcomes.”
The Club’s record direct return to Hong Kong in 2015/16 reflected both the quality of its world- class racing and the strong performance of its responsible wagering and lottery services. “What has enabled the Club to achieve these excellent results is the development of a world-class racing product combined with a rigorous focus on customer centricity,” said Chief Executive Officer Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.
The Club’s HK$6.5bn racecourse revitalisation, which this year saw the opening of five new or refurbished venues, has seen Happy Valley and Sha Tin racecourses substantially upgraded. Together with the excitement generated by top-class horses and star jockeys, all this helped push racecourse attendance to just over two million for the fourth consecutive year.
Also fundamental to the Club’s customer-centric approach is the development of new digital products to meet customer demand for speed, convenience and connectivity. To maintain its position as a technology leader, the Club is moving ahead with a multi-billion next generation customer information and wagering system.
P30 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM
Australia Mildura casino to break Victoria’s monopoly
Australia Cove Limited has published a proposal for a A$300m development called Te Mildura which would include a convention centre, a boutique casino and a five star hotel. Te developer will have to convince the Victoria government to issue a second licence in the state.
Australia Cove Chief Executive Bob McIver said the project needed to be supported by the Mildura community. It already has the support of Mildura Development Corporation, Mildura Tourism, Mildura City Heart and representatives from the Mildura airport.
Mildura Development Corporation chairman Jenny Grigg said it was the ‘most exiting, iconic’ project for the region, and nationally, offering huge potential for the region, in economic development, jobs and growth.
“We’re looking at 800 jobs in construction and 800 ongoing jobs,” she said. “Te potential is to provide our young people with new and exciting career paths, not just provide them with a job but new career paths and take them into a productive future. Te flow-on effects that this project provides are massive. Our role at the moment is to provide as much support as we can as the company goes through that process with government to gain a casino licence.”
Gaming outlets must be at least 200 meters from schools and churches, with PAGCOR ruling that 36 e-bingo sites run by Leisure & Resorts World subsidiary AB Leisure Exponent (ABLE) and 17 sites by its other subsidiary Total Gamezone Extreme Inc (TGXI) must close.
LRWC said: “LRWC will send the letter of reconsideration to PAGCOR not later than Tuesday, 13 September 2016. We will still wait for the PAGCOR’s reply to our request for reconsideration before we could set our timetable for the resumption of operations of the affected sites.
“We could not anticipate the exact date on when will Pagcor answer our request. Should reconsideration be not given, we will transfer the electronic bingo operations at said sites and transfer the same to compliant locations.”
LRWC reported a consolidated net income of
P1.03bn last year despite its junket casino business falling by 30 per cent decline. Revenues reached P9.510bn in 2015 versus P6.8bn for the same period last year, marking growth of 40 per cent.
ABLE’s bingo operations were up 27 per cent from 2014 of P193m to P244m.
Te company was one of the pioneers in introducing Electronic Bingo games (E-bingo) in the Philippines.
Te popularity of these machines has swelled and has now become the ABLE’s principal product line. E-bingo is played through an electronic bingo machine, which generates the games and the cards. A total of 8,585 E-bingo machines were installed in 119 affiliated bingo parlours as of December 2015.
Te dynamic transition to electronic games was due to the technological advances made in the gaming industry. On 21 July 2014, the company acquired Total Gamezone Xtreme, which operates 53 branches with a total of 1,974 terminals.
Sri Lanka
SIS has broken new ground by bringing the company’s SIS Stream platform to Sri Lanka for the first time. Launched with major operator Sporting Times, the deal will allow for customisable high definition content to be shown in shops through SIS’ low latency IPTV streaming network. In addition to SIS’ own IPTV channels, the flexible and fully scalable SIS Stream platform allows Sporting Times to distribute third party content to their retail estate. The deal marks the first time the flexible SIS Stream platform will be utilised in Sri Lanka, and continues a two decade relationship between the two companies which began with satellite distribution in early 1990s. SIS Commercial Director Paul Witten, said: “Our flexible, low latency IPTV service allows operators to offer shop content globally, even to regions traditionally unreachable via other distribution methods.”
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