Tag: Asia

Genting Malaysia has declared that its casinos will remain closed and IR resorts under its Malaysian IR arm, Resorts World Genting (RWG), will operate partially following the new government guidelines amid sudden spurt in the Covid 19 cases in the country.

The Malaysian government has issued new guidelines under its new order titled  Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0, which stipulate that 80% of employees in the public sector and 40% in the private sector must work from home. According to the new order, public transport is limited to 50% capacity and most of the businesses must operate only between 8 am and 8 pm.

The new measures were introduced after the country witnessed a new high of 6976 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.

Following the new order, RWG released a public statement that the casino would be “temporarily closed from today until further notice” and the working hours of the resort are curtailed to between 8 am and 8 pm until 7 June 2021.

The statement also adds:

“This applies to all our hotels, food & beverage outlets, shopping malls, retail outlets and other facilities,” “Some of our offerings may not be available during this period.”

Asia Pioneer Entertainment (APE), the Macau-based electronic gaming product distributor, has launched its first “smart vending machine” into the market under the “Snap Buy” brand with goods from Choi Heong Yuen Bakery, Macau.

The company revealed in March that it was launching the new vending machine business segment as a means of supplementing its core gaming interests due to revenue pressures brought by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Set to be deployed across Macau, APE’s smart vending machines will offer a range of goods while providing retail client with detailed sales data.

The first machine has now been installed at Taipa Ferry Terminal and Hotel Metropole selling a variety of Choi Heong Yuen Bakery’s most popular products, including Almond Cakes, Phoenix Egg Rolls and Liquorice Lemon.

Herman Ng, Managing Director and CEO of APE, said, “Under the trend of intelligent retail and self-service, combined with encouragement from the Macau government to push the use of electronic payment, I think ‘Snap Buy’ smart vending machines have great potential for development.

“The collaboration with Choi Heong Yuen Macau aims to take advantage of smart retail to fully demonstrate its superiority and uniqueness. We would like to express our appreciation of the brand. It is believed that this collaboration will achieve a win-win situation for both parties.

“In the future, more smart vending machines will be placed in various locations and selling different kinds of products in Macau.”

Kyodo News Digital, a subsidiary of the leading news agency in Japan, has signed a new multi-year partnership with Sportradar. Under the terms of the agreement, Sportradar will see its multi-sport API data services and Radar 360 product re-distributed to Kyodo’s media clients across Japan.

The multi-year deal will see both parties expand a relationship they have had since 2018, which will include the supply and support of a wide range of data from international competitions around the globe including baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby, tennis and golf.

“Offering accurate and reliable information is the cornerstone of our business and we are excited to be partnering with Sportradar to provide the market leading products and services to us and our clients,” Ryuichi Koie, General Manager of Sports Data Division at Kyodo News Digital, said.

Editors and clients will be able to access real-time NBA data through Sportradar’s Radar360 product. This is an innovative tool which allows users to access data through an intuitive interface and easily customisable queries, and includes the ability to create, modify and save custom reports and a myriad of offerings with custom views that allow the end user to choose the stats desired and isolate players and teams from different eras for a direct comparison.

Baseball fans will get exclusive data through the MLB Statcast offering from Sportradar, who are MLB’s exclusive distributor of real-time game statistics, across international markets. Statcast is a state-of-the-art tracking technology that allows for the collection and analysis of a massive amount of baseball data, in ways that were never possible in the past. This unprecedented access to data will help shape the offering Kyodo News is able to present to its clients.

“Media partners use our turnkey services to tell unique, data-driven stories. With these expanded capabilities, it will be even easier to comprehend trends and produce amazing content for pre-, in-, and post-game consumption. It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to partner with Kyodo News who are an established media outlet not only in Japan, but in the region,” Danny Fok, Head of Business Development, Asia at Sportradar, said.

Cambodia’s largest casino operator NagaCorp is set to cut more than 1300 jobs as the company deals with increasingly difficult conditions as a result of its continued casino closure.

The casino staff cuts have earned the ire of worker union leader Chhim Sithar, who alleges the company is unfairly paying staff only a fraction of the severance pay they are owed, by basing the severance pay on the reduced salaries that were imposed last year.

“Workers risked their safety to make profits for NagaWorld during the pandemic and then when they need help, they are abandoned,” Sithar said.

“We are asking for support and they have responded with the idea of mass layoffs. It’s extremely disappointing,” she added.

The staff layoffs come despite the company still managing to record a net profit during the 2020 year, driven by a strong recovery in the second half, led by the premium mass sector.

During the first quarter of 2021, NagaCorp said its mass market business had continued to improve, gaining sequentially from the second half of last year and returning to about 99% of its Q1 2020 levels before the pandemic took hold.

The company, however, has had its casino closed since early March, after several staff were found positive for Covid-19, as well as a rise in Covid-19 community transmissions in the country.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has announced that two more IRs have been allowed to launch online gaming products.

The news comes after Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment’s Okada Manila Resort became the first casino in Manila’s Entertainment City to be permitted by PAGCOR to offer online gambling. Now, Solaire Resort and Casino and Resorts World Manila have allowed to run online table games and slot machines.

The new licences will be regulated under a new system called PIGO (Philippine Inland Gaming Operator), which allows operators to offer gaming services to players within the country.

PAGCOR Chairman Andrea Domingo said licences would remain with limits. She said: “Not just anyone can play because of non-proliferation and responsible gaming.”

Land-based casinos in Metro Manila will remain closed until at least May 14 under the city’s Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Goa’s state government has extended the lockdown measures for another seven days, from May 3 to 10, as part of efforts to halt a massive outbreak of COVID-19 currently sweeping the country.

The extended lockdown follows an initial four-day lockdown announced last week which saw all non-essential services including casinos, hotels, bars, restaurants and tourism facilities ordered closed.

Under revised conditions in place for the next seven days, those same businesses must remain closed while shops selling food must shorten their hours of operation from 15 hours a day to 12.

An order issued by the North Goa District Magistrate said, “A surge in COVID-19 cases is being witnessed in Goa and other parts of the country, and the situation might further aggravate due to public gatherings and active interactions among high positivity rate.”

Before going into lockdown last week, the Goa government had imposed a night curfew from 10 pm to 6 am with casinos, restaurants, bars and cinemas allowed to operate at 50% capacity during opening hours.