The government of Nepal last week said it was “likely” to issue approval to Hong Kong’s Silver Heritage Limited to run Shangri-La casino housed at Shangri-La Hotel & Resort. The company will operate the casino in a joint venture with a Nepali company.
Silver Heritage also said it’s developing a hotel and conference resort in the city of Bhairahawa. The new casino, to be called the Millionaire’s Club & Casino, will be a boutique casino operating under the new Nepal gaming regulations, and will house 22 live gaming tables and 40 electronic gaming machines. The property will be primarily aimed at customers from the growing Indian and Chinese markets, as well as the growing expatriate community living in Nepal. It is expected to open during the first quarter of 2015.
Silver Heritage plans to invest over 1 billion Nepalese Rupees (US$10 million) in the Shangri-La project.
“The company has met all the requirements,” said Tulasi Gautam, director general of the Department of Tourism. “After a joint-venture company is registered, we will forward the company’s proposal to the Tourism Ministry for its final approval.”
Earlier, Malaysia-based Star Management had operated the Casino Shangri-La, but was forced to permanently shut down the gaming house after what the government termed “labor unrest.” Star had been operating the casino under a lease agreement with the hotel since December 2010.
The Nepal government is making efforts to streamlining the operation of casinos, which, says the government, defaulted on taxes and disregarded the rule barring Nepalis from entry. On April 19, all the casinos in Nepal were declared illegal by the government, alleging that none of them had paid their outstanding royalty dues and obtained new operating permits as per the new regulation.
An estimated 3,500 employees were out of their jobs after 10 casinos—eight in Kathmandu and two in Pokhara—were told to shut down
Since then, the government has recognized casino as an important product to attract tourists and create jobs, said Gautam. “As casinos are one of the major tourism products, we want to make sure the operators are competent and guarantee the products are of international standard,” said Gautam.
Silver Heritage has operations across the Asia Pacific, with equity ownership in casino licenses and licensed gaming operations. It has projects running in India, Vietnam and the Philippines.
