Huge Cambodian casino complex planned to lure Chinese

Thu Jul 29, 2010
By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A South Korean real-estate developer is to build a $400 million integrated resort and casino in Cambodia to target the growing number of Chinese visitors to Southeast Asia and its burgeoning gambling sector.

The resort will be in Siem Reap province, 314 km (195 miles) northwest of the capital Phnom Penh, which attracts over a million tourists a year to its famed Angkor temples, James Cho, vice-president of Intercity Group, told Reuters in an interview.

Construction of the Water Park complex, with hotels, a gaming centre, shopping and convention centres and an 18-hole golf course, will start in October and it should open in early 2012.

Cho said it aimed in particular to draw visitors from other Asian countries, including Thais, Malaysians and Singaporeans.

But the Chinses are a big target clientele.

"They're visiting Singapore, they're visiting Southeast Asia, and we just think that right now it's a very good time, it's the right time. Asian gaming is hitting Cambodia right now," Cho said.

"With the Chinese, the increase in the middle class from China, Southeast Asia is a very good market. There is no visa restriction like they have in Macau," he said.

China has periodically placed restrictions on visits to Macau and its casinos by citizens from the mainland.

Tourism is Cambodia's second-biggest currency earner after its agricultural sector.

The government gained revenue of $19 million from its 29 casinos in 2008, according to Finance Ministry data. That fell to $17 million last year, squeezed by a drop in tourist arrivals and border tensions with neighbouring Thailand.

Thais are a vital part of Cambodia's casino industry. Most forms of gambling are forbidden in Thailand but thousands of Thais regularly visit massive casino complexes just over the border with Cambodia.

Cho said around 2.2 million tourists a year visited Cambodia and 1.3 million of them went to the temples in Siem Reap. The new resort was hoping to attract 60 to 70 percent of them.

NagaCorp, listed in Hong Kong, is currently the only casino operator in Cambodia, with a licence to run casinos within 200 km (124 miles) of Phnom Penh until 2065.

Cho said the Intercity Group casino would be the first sited away from country's borders, part of the Cambodian government's wider efforts to attract more tourists into the country.

"They're making it a very rare exception and allowing a resort with gaming to be built," he said.

(Editing by Alan Raybould)

South Korean Developer Courts Harrah's for Casino at Cambodia's Angkor Wat [-An insult on Angkor Wat?]

Thu Jul 29
By Daniel Ten Kate
Bloomberg

The tourist draw of Angkor Wat, the 12th century Hindu temple, an international airport and “tons” of incentives from the government, including corporate tax holidays and low gaming levies, will make the project viable, Cho said.

South Korean developer Intercity Group plans to start construction in October on a $400 million casino resort complex near Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples that aims to draw high rollers from Macau and Singapore.

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the world’s biggest casino owner, and MGM Resorts International, the largest casino owner on the Las Vegas strip, are among potential investors to visit the site, James Cho, Intercity’s vice president, said in an interview yesterday. The first phase of the project, Cambodia’s largest casino to date, is set to finish in 2012, he said.

“All these big guys are interested in operation management deals,” said Cho, who holds a graduate degree from Columbia University. “We’re confident because the feasibility is there and gaming concessions in this region are so rare.”

Intercity is betting the casino complex, with an investment value equivalent to about 4 percent of Cambodia’s gross domestic product, will draw Asian gamblers looking for an alternative to more established gambling centers. Singapore opened Resorts World Sentosa in February and Marina Bay Sands in April, and Vietnam has approved a $4.2 billion casino set to open in 2013.

Raising funds may prove difficult in the current financial climate given the project’s scale, which is bigger than most casinos outside Singapore and Macau, said Sean Monaghan, an industry expert who formerly worked as a gaming analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. Success may hinge on showing investors ties to junket operators in Thailand and China, he said.

“Even though Siem Reap sounds goods, most of the people that go there aren’t really casino players,” Singapore-based Monaghan said. “You have to have a very, very solid team to pull that financing off.”

Temples, Incentives

Yvette Monet, an MGM spokeswoman, and Jacqueline Peterson, a spokeswoman for Las Vegas-based Harrah’s, didn’t immediately respond to e-mails sent after regular office hours or answer calls to their mobile phones.

Intercity declined to reveal how much funding has been raised so far. The tourist draw of Angkor Wat, the 12th century Hindu temple, an international airport and “tons” of incentives from the government, including corporate tax holidays and low gaming levies, will make the project viable, Cho said.

“Not everybody’s going to gamble in Macau or Singapore,” Cho said. “Cambodia is family friendly and it’s cheaper.”

Hyung Joo Kim, Intercity’s chief executive officer, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Hun Sen today in Phnom Penh, Cho said. He will be accompanied by several partners in the project, including Tobin Prior, a former executive with Kerzner International Ltd. who led the company’s bid for the Singapore concession in 2006 that was eventually awarded to Genting Bhd.

Golf Courses, Water Park

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan referred questions to the country’s investment board. Sok Chenda, secretary-general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, declined to comment on the project when reached by phone.

Intercity Group is a Seoul-based global real estate and investment firm founded in 1994, according to its website. It has developed $387 million worth of commercial and residential properties in South Korea, according to the site.

Intercity received a license to develop the Angkor casino in 2008, according to the website.

The Bellus Angkor Resort & City will feature the casino, three hotels, three golf courses and a water park. The 18-hole course will be designed by David McLay Kidd, who created the Bandon Dunes course in Oregon and Castle Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, Cho said.

Cambodia attracted 2.2 million tourists last year, with about 580,000 flying directly into Siem Reap, according to government statistics. The resort will be located about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of Angkor, about a 30-minute drive from the airport, Cho said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

Angkor Shoe Draws Ire of Foreign Minister [-Viet border posts on Khmer territories are as offensive as these shoes!]

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
13 January 2010

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Wednesday condemned the use of the Cambodian flag in the production of a new line of footwear advertised on the Internet and reported in local media this week.

The shoes were designed with the iconic symbol of Angkor Wat, on Keds canvas, infuriating many Cambodians and irking the foreign minister, who lambasted the design before flying to Hanoi Wednesday.

“The shoe is insulting and defames Cambodian honor and dignity,” Hor Namhong told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport. “This we cannot tolerate.”

Similar shoes were designed around the flags of many other countries, but Hor Namhong said he was concerned only with the image of Cambodia.

“In fact, the shoe issue affects our nation because Angkor Wat is a respectable [symbol] to the Cambodian people and the nation,” he said. “So Cambodia must investigate the production of the shoe. And then we will protest.”

Angkor Wat is a powerful national icon for Cambodians. In 2008, flip-flop sandals bearing the temple’s image appeared in markets in Vietnam’s Tai Ninh province, provoking a government investigation.

In November 2008, a Thai man was arrested for carving the temple’s image in a slab of concrete in front of a public toilet in Poipet, on the Thai border.

In 2003, unconfirmed rumors that a Thai actress had claimed the temple for Thailand sparked a night or rioting and looting in Phnom Penh that destroyed the Thai Embassy and many Thai businesses.

“Angkor Wat is the symbol of the Cambodian nation,” Hor Namhong said. “Angkor Wat and the national flag of Cambodia always stay in all Cambodians’ souls, hearts and minds. We cannot accept the production of these shoes, and the company must be responsible for violating Cambodia.

Thai Gets 3-Month Sentence After Temple Insult

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
27 August 2009

A Thai man accused of insulting the national symbol of Angkor Wat temple received a three-month jail sentence on Tuesday, for living in Cambodia without a visa.
Salavout Khamsan, 39, was originally arrested by local police for carving an image of Angkor Wat in concrete in front of a public toilet in the border town of Poipet. The courts could not find a legal article under which to charge him for that, however.

“I sentenced the Thai national Salavout Khamsan to three months in prison for illegally entering Cambodia,” Tous Sam Ath, the provincial court judge, told VOA Khmer. “I dropped charges against [him] for insulting Angkor Wat because there is no offense with which we can charge him.”

Soum Chan Kea, Banteay Meanchey coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said the sentence was a fair warning, but he felt “very sorry” the charge of insult had to be dropped.

To put an image of the temple in front of a toilet was “incitement,” he said, as well as “racial discrimination.”

Thai Embassy officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.