MACAU BUSINESS By José Carlos Matias By Paolo A. Azevedo Playing by the rules O


Jeju – the new Singapore


Illegal gambling remains the single most pressing global challenge for the gaming industry. IAGA’s Kristen Clark and Rui Pinto Proença reflect on both longstanding and emerging compliance issues as Asian markets grow increasingly sophisticated.


ver the past decade, the G2E Asia trade show and conference has featured the IAGA Best Practices


Jeju will be as big as Singapore in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue, predicts Lawrence Teo. The Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Dream Tower, the tallest Integrated Resort under construction on the Korean destination island, explains to Macau Business why Lotte Tour decided to enter the casino business and create a landmark. All bets are on making the casino resort the crown of the tourism jewel the company has been dominating for four decades


Institute, hosted by the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA), bringing together experts from around the world to Macau to take the pulse of the latest developments and industry trends.


This year, the sessions held on 9 May included discussions on some of the most pressing compliance issues faced by gaming operators, trends in anti-money laundering and financial crime, the growing threats from illegal gambling markets, as well as compliance concerns beyond gaming - such as ESG and emerging technologies.


Amid a shifting global landscape, Asia is poised to welcome new jurisdictions embracing legal gambling under the integrated resort model - with Thailand, Japan and the United Arab Emirates emerging as the expected ‘next big things’ in the region.


The Asia-Pacific market “is becoming a lot more sophisticated,” notes Kristen Clark, IAGA Executive Director.


What, then, is the single most formidable challenge the industry is facing today? “If I have to pick one, it’s the illegal market,” Ms Clark replies. “Regardless of governments’ best efforts to legalise, you will always have a thriving illegal market,” she adds. Tackling this persistent issue, she says, requires “a really strong global participation from a law enforcement perspective.” After all, the illegal market poses a “massive threat also to the sustainability of the legitimate markets, leading to negative perception on those legitimate markets.”


In such a tightly regulated industry, “an operator’s compliance arm is critical to not only their licensing, but to their legitimacy on both a local and a global stage.”


At this annual event, “we draw from a wide base of global experts from so many different jurisdictions that are exposed to different


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MACAU’S MATURED NEW GAME Over the past decade - and especially over the last four years - Macau has expanded and tightened the regulatory framework of its gaming industry, introducing a host of new laws and regulations aimed at curbing the “unhealthy” and unlawful practices that once plagued the sector.


natural evolution? Lawrence Teo – Business is the same. But building


a landmark. M. B. – The group [Lotte] has created other landmarks in different types of business. Why would this be different? L. T. – Yes, Lotte Group has already created


In addition to visiting the SAR regularly for IAGA sessions, Kristen Clark first came to Macau shortly after the opening of Sands Macao in 2004 - a milestone that proved to be a game changer, leading the city to surpass Las Vegas just three years later as the world’s top gaming revenue jurisdiction. She was eventually based


acau Business – From Lotte World, a major recreational complex [with the world’s largest indoor theme park, in Seoul] to an integrated resort with casino in Jeju. A different beast. A


in Macau between 2011 and 2014, witnessing the industry’s “sky-is-the-limit” peak, when gross gaming revenue hit an all-time high of MOP 360.7 billion (US$45.1 billion), with VIP revenue - driven by junket operators - accounting for two-thirds of total GGR. Much has changed since then, with the demise of junkets brought about by a broader anti-corruption campaign in Mainland China and a local crackdown on illegal practices by gaming promoters.


The city’s external reputation has markedly improved. “From a regulatory perspective, it’s definitely much higher than before,” Ms Clark notes.


Rui Pinto Proença stresses that Macau’s gaming sector and regulatory framework “became more rigorous and more prescriptive in many ways,” evolving in line with the industry’s development needs.


to do the Dream Tower in Jeju. Lotte here is being just a family company; we’re a different company [Lotte Tour]. It’s not going to be [just] the tallest and the largest building in Jeju, that’s just the hardware. We say that a landmark should be the most visited destination, where tourists will go to eat, shop and maybe [visit] our observation deck. A must-visit point destination. Because of the hardware, and also the software.


“Back in the day, the focus was on growing, generating tax return, generating employment.” Once that had been achieved, “it was time to start moving to a more controlled environment.” Macau has now “matured into an industry that doesn’t need so many junkets and that can move on to a more family-friendly consumer destination, with other offers as well, complementing gaming,” adds Mr Proença, managing partner of MdME, a Macau-based law firm with offices also in Hong Kong and Lisbon, Portugal.


M. B. – What are the main goals that you definitely downtown Seoul and Lotte Super Tower. We’re trying


want to achieve with this Integrated Resort (IR)? L. T. – Number one EBIDTA on IR in Korea. There’s


challenges,” adds Rui Pinto Proença, Co-chair of IAGA’s Asia Committee and a member of the board of trustees.


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