Tak Chun VIP at Cambodia’s NagaWorld this month: junket

Feb 11, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Tak Chun Group, a leading Macau investor in gambling junkets, is preparing to open a VIP gaming club at the NagaWorld casino resort complex (pictured) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.

“Our VIP Club in Cambodia’s NagaWorld will officially be open to [the] public in mid-February,” said Tak Chun chief executive Levo Chan as quoted in a prepared statement.

The announcement didn’t clarify if the new club was in the original NagaWorld building or Naga 2 nearby, which opened in November 2017.

“Together with our business locations in Manila, the Philippines and Da Nang, Vietnam, we pledge further to build our presence in the Southeast Asia market,” Tak Chun’s Mr Chan was further quoted as saying.

The Tak Chun statement was released on Friday and also publicised the relocation and relaunch of the junket brand’s VIP club at Macau’s City of Dreams casino resort.

It said a ceremony for the latter’s relaunch had been attended by City of Dreams Macau property president David Sisk, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd executive vice-president of international marketing and VIP Joseph Tang, and representatives of Tak Chun’s shareholders.

The club has moved to the second floor of City of Dreams Macau. It has six gaming rooms and 14 gaming tables there, according to the release.

The Tak Chun statement mentioned the company had given all its employees what it termed a “discretionary bonus” prior to last week’s Lunar New Year celebrations.

Cambodia’s NagaWorld casino resort is run by NagaCorp Ltd. The November 2017 enlargement of the complex with the launch of Naga 2, allowed the casino operator to expand its gross gaming revenue by about 94 percent in the following nine months, the firm has said.

In October, the Hong Kong-listed company stated rolling chip turnover in the VIP table games segment rose by 128 percent to more than US$25.03 billion in the first three quarters of 2018.

The potential of NagaWorld’s business – it has a long-lasting monopoly for the Phnom Penh market at a time of rising Chinese commercial investment in Cambodia – has seen several of Macau’s biggest junket brands move into the complex. Guangdong Group told GGRAsia it had commenced trial operations for at least 10 tables early in January, and the Suncity Group has managed VIP facilities at Naga 2 since early last year.

Tak Chun currently runs 17 VIP gaming clubs in Macau and five outside the territory.

(Updated 4pm, Feb 11)

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