Looking to boost Malaysian, Indonesian tourism
Southeast Asian casino operator Donaco International Ltd. will rely less on VIP revenues at its flagship Star Vegas resort in Cambodia, says Executive Director Ben Reichel. Instead, the company will emphasize mass and online gaming, Reichel told Inside Asian Gaming.
“We want to build up visitation from other countries including China, Malaysia and Indonesia and we also want to focus on the online industry which is a burgeoning industry, particularly in Poipet,” Reichel told IAG.
“Historically VIP has represented about 40 percent of our revenue, which is all junket-based business. Our aim is to get that down to 25 percent by growing the mass market, by growing the slot machine base in particular and also by the online side.”
With the explosion of online gaming in Cambodia’s top casino towns, including Poipet, Bavet and Sihanoukville, Donaco will launch an online gaming platform, described by Reichel as a “significant growth engine” for the company.
“We’re not making forecasts on how much that will make but it is a very big opportunity,” he said. “It is a crowded space, there are a lot of brands out there, but one of the benefits is that Star Vegas is a very well-known brand so hopefully that will have some cut-through.”
He said the company has “an agreement in place to bring in Chinese mass market players from Siam Reap because there is a lot of Chinese visitation there, it’s a very famous tourist destination and it’s a market we’ve been looking at for a while.
“We think we have the right partner now to start bringing in Chinese tour groups to our property just for one night or so, so that will complement the Thai mass market side.”
