New York: USD 1.2 B Resorts World Catskills Casino will open on February 8th

On Feb 8, Empire Resorts Inc, controlled by Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Genting Bhd, will open Resorts World Catskills, a USD 1.2 billion casino, hotel and entertainment complex at the site of the old Concord Resort Hotel, the largest of the upstate New York resorts  and the latest effort of Genting Group to gain a bigger foothold in the US.

Genting, which runs casinos from Singapore to England to the Bahamas, also operates a casino at New York City’s Aqueduct racetrack and Empire Resorts runs a small racetrack casino in the Catskills. And unlike the two racetrack casinos, limited by the state to slots and other electronic games, the Empire resort will have a 100,000 square-foot casino with more than 150 game tables as well as 2,150 slot machines.

The resort will include a 332-room hotel and 2,500-seat theatre, with plans for an 18-hole golf course and a water park.

Empire Resorts is counting on those features, along with Genting’s customer base from casinos in Malaysia, Singapore and other countries, to help build business from the other side of the Pacific.

“We can offer international players known to Genting an opportunity here in North America that they otherwise would not have,” Empire Resorts CEO Ryan Eller said. “It gives us the opportunity to reach across not only North America but potentially internationally.”

To boost its appeal among Asian gamblers, Empire has hired Chinese-speaking staff, recruited a chef from Taiwan and used feng shui principles in its design. Casino games like pai gow that are popular with Asian customers will take up approximately one-third of the gaming floor.

Empire moved forward the launch date, originally scheduled for March, to take advantage of the Lunar New Year in mid-February, with plans for a traditional dragon dance to welcome the Year of the Dog.

“People from Asia want to come to New York,” said Charles Degliomini, executive vice-president of governmental affairs and corporate communications, who points out that the Catskills resort is only 90 miles from New York City.

The two upstate New York resorts that have already opened, the Del Lago Resort & Casino in the Finger Lakes region and Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady, haven’t generated the revenue originally forecast, according to Clyde Barrow, a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who worked with Caesars Entertainment Corp on its unsuccessful bid for a licence in New York. “They haven’t come close to their original forecast or projections,” Barrow said.

During the 12 months ended November, casinos in seven Northeastern states produced US$10 billion in gaming revenue, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, matching the annual in Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County, Nevada. Capacity in the Northeast could grow as much as 24% this year.

“There are way too many casinos in much of the Northeast,” said Richard McGowan, a professor of finance at Boston College who studies the casino industry.

At Genting’s Resorts World New York City casino in Queens, where the company began a USD 400 million expansion last year, gambling revenue was down slightly to USD 850 million even after adding 1,000 slot machines.

Empire Resorts is not technically part of the Genting group, a conglomerate that operates cruise ships, manufactures paper and runs palm oil plantations in addition to its hotel and casino businesses. Instead, a private investment company controlled by Lim owns more than 90% of Empire shares.

Last year, Empire reached an agreement to use Genting’s Resorts World brand and participate in its Genting Rewards Alliance loyalty program in exchange for a single-digit percentage of net revenue, according to an Empire filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Industry experts claim that, although Asian customers may be a hard target for state casinos, Resorts World Catskills's Asian roots may go a long way to achieving the goal.