A new casino has opened on Cambodia’s border with Vietnam about 87 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City.
The offering at the Roxy Casino in Bavet City in Syay Rieng Province consists of 20 live table games, two multiplayer electronic roulette tables, slot machines, sports betting, a small hotel (20 rooms) and a 50-seat restaurant on a total land area of 2,700 square meters.
“Vietnamese locals are the most important market,” its owners, ASX-listed Cell Aquaculture (CAQ), said in a statement released Monday. “Marketing programs and promotions are created to tap into this primary market, including attracting junkets from Vietnam.”
Online gamblers “also form an important market for the casino,” principally those in Vietnam, the company said, and the Roxy also features eight table games accessible remotely via PC and mobile.
Visitation to Cambodia is up 6.8 percent year on year through April, according to government figures, with Vietnamese accounting for 268,567 arrivals, the largest single share at 16.8 percent, followed by China with 204,738 and Korea with 203,274.
Cell Aquaculture, a seafood farming and processing company based in Australia, acquired the casino in March for A$83 million in stock from a consortium engaged in commercial property development in the Haikou Free Trade Zone on China’s Hainan Island. One of the sellers is Hong Kong-listed Beijing Properties (Holdings) Limited. The deal includes various properties in the FTZ.
Cell Aquaculture posted an operating loss of A$1.3 million and a net loss of $200,000 on $1.9 million in revenues for the financial year ended 30th June 2013. Current trading shows a market cap of about A$44 million.
