Greg Roselli – Genting construction to begin in 2014

Re-Blogged by Greg Roselli

Last week, the Nevada Gaming Commission found Malaysian conglomerate Genting Berhad suitable to do business in the state; and company officials reported that construction would begin in summer 2014 on the $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas, which will be located on the 87-acre north Las Vegas Strip site of the former Stardust casino hotel and the stalled multi-billion dollar “Echelon” development, on which construction was halted due to the recession.

Gaming Commissioner Tony Alamo Jr., who noted that he has ruled on 17 gaming industry debt restructuring and reorganizations since starting at the Commission in 2008.  Genting told executives the company would be a “welcome addition to the Strip and Nevada market.”

Gaming Commission Chairman Peter Bernhard added that Genting, which benefits from significant cash flows and limited debt, “clearly has the financial stability and business probity” to build Resorts World Las Vegas; “It will be a game changer.”

As outlined in Genting’s presentation, construction is expected to take several years and includes “at least two or three phases.”

The first phase will feature a 3,000-room hotel, a casino with an aggregate of 3,500 slot machines and table games, 30 restaurants and bars, a 4,000-seat entertainment venue, an “elaborate garden attraction” that will serve as the property’s front door to the Strip and a 50,000 sq ft, 58” tall aquarium that will feature a variety of exotic fish. The first phase is expected to create 8,500 direct jobs and 3,300 indirect jobs.

Greg Roselli-Genting Singapore, Landing Int’l propose $2.2 billion casino in South Korea

Re-Blogged by Greg Roselli

International casino operator Genting Singapore announced in a joint statement last week that it will team up with the Chinese property group Landing International Development Ltd. to construct and run a $2.2 billion casino resort on Jeju Island in South Korea.Greg Roselli

The project, expected to open in 2017 on a 2.3 square meter site in Jeju, will include casinos, luxury hotels, a theme park and shopping mall, among other amenities.

South Korea currently has 16 casinos limited to foreigners only, whose primary customers come from Japan and China. The country forbids citizens from gaming in casinos outside of Kangwon Land, an isolated resort three hours from Seoul.

Genting affiliates own and operate casinos in Malaysia, Singapore and New York; and have purchased land in Las Vegas and Miami, FL for potential future developments (subject to legislation in Florida). The company’s Resorts World Sentosa, just off the southern coast of Singapore , opened in early 2010 and cost just under US$5 billion. In New York, Resorts World NYC opened at the site of the former Aqueduct racetrack in Queens in October 2011.

Greg Roselli-Miami Casino Bill Headed Toward Another Quiet Death in Tallahassee

Re-Blogged by Greg Roselli

As reported by the Miami New Times, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford has admitted that it is looking “more and more likely” that neither the House nor Senate will take action on a bill to add more casinos to the state in the 2014 session despite the completion of a 2013 study on additional casino supply. The gaming expansion bill floated this year would have allowed the construction of two “destination casinos” Greg Roselliin Miami-Dade and Broward counties; however lawmakers are unlikely to begin debate on the topic unless a new compact is negotiated with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Weatherford would also like to see gaming expansion decided by voters via a constitutional amendment.

The current compact with the Seminoles was inked in 2010 between the Tribe and Gov. Charlie Crist; and sections of it begin to expire in August 2015. Governor Rick Scott has started closed-door negotiations with the Tribe although there has been little speculation that he’ll reach an agreement by the end of the 2014 legislative session. The Governor would have to reach a new agreement with the Seminoles that would allow for the destination casinos in order to maintain the current level annual revenue-sharing payments with the state, which are speculated at hundreds of millions of dollars.

Greg Roselli-Gaming operators lobby for expansion in Florida

Re-Blogged By Greg Roselli

According to Bloomberg, casino operators including Las Vegas Sands and Genting have sent more than 100Greg Roselli lobbyists to Florida to push for expanded gaming in the state against heavy opposition from Disney and other interests. Florida current limits its casino gaming to slot parlors in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and Native American casinos with slots and limited card-based table games. A study commissioned by the state last year found that full-casinos, their hotels and other amenities could generate $1.5 billion in new annual spending in Florida, making the fourth-most populous state attractive to casino operators amid limited new development opportunities elsewhere in the country.

In addition to entertainment, large-scale gaming investments would compete with existing facilities for convention business – pitting Disney’s 700,000 square feet of meeting space, and other venues in-and-out-of Orlando, against the 750,000 square foot facility in Miami proposed by Genting and what would likely be a similar proposal from Las Vegas Sands.

While the industry has pushed for resort casinos in Florida since the 1970s, the debate was revived in 2011, when Genting began to buy more than $400 million of real estate for its proposed $3.8 billion “Resorts World Miami” development;  legislation for which was ultimately rejected by state lawmakers in 2012.

Gaming expansion is expected to be debated in the legislature in 2014; however, going in to the gubernatorial election later in the year, any large-scale change to Florida’s gaming landscape is expected to be pushed into 2015.

Greg Roselli: New Bill on Internet Cafe “Gaming”

Re-Blogged by Greg Roselli

Following similar legislation in Florida, Ohio and other states, California Assemblyman Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield) has submitted a bill that would outlaw the quasi-legal “Internet Café” gambling operations in the state. Assembly Bill 1439, Greg Roselliwhich was introduced on Jan. 6, would add “sweepstakes” to the list of unfair business practices prohibited under state law. The bill would also prohibit “gambling-themed” or “simulated gambling electronic video” monitors in a business that awards “sweepstakes cash” or other prizes of value. “Any time you try to mimic a casino-style game like slot machines, it is illegal,” Salas noted, referring to “Internet Cafes” that use terminals and software to mimic slot machines under the umbrella of a legal contest. “This bill will bring clarity to the law to make these illegal.”

 Internet cafe-owner Phillip Walker, who has also created the Internet Cafe Association of California, reiterated his stance that legislators need to wait for an appellate court ruling on the legality of the Cafes before acting, adding, “…it is no different than Albertsons or Rite-Aid. All those places have sweepstakes. Coca-Cola has sweepstakes.”

 Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Williamson told the press that the city has 15 Internet cafes currently operating (up from 13 in November) and considers them “magnets for related criminal activity.”

 

New Sponsor for NY Devils and Sixers

Re-Blogged by Greg Roselli

The  Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils  have signed a multi-year marketing contract with a unit of Gibraltar-based partypoker, a unit of Bwin.Party Digital entertainment. The deal makes the teams the first in the U.S. to contract with an online gaming provider following its

Prudential Center

Prudential Center

legalization in New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada (poker-only). The deal will make partypoker the official online gaming sponsor of the Devils, Sixers and the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ (home of the Devils); and per the article, the agreement is worth $10 million (sourced to a “person with direct knowledge of the deal).  “This is our flag in the ground that we do things differently, ” Sixers, Devils and Prudential Center CEO Scott O’Neil told the media. “We’re looking for groundbreaking opportunities with companies willing to take chances.”