GGRAsia – Cambodia’s Grand Dragon Resorts seals proxy betting deal

Cambodia’s Grand Dragon Resorts seals proxy betting deal

Dec 16, 2014 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino property Grand Dragon Resorts (pictured), located in Cambodia, has partnered with live dealer gaming system provider Ezugi to offer proxy betting. The agreement will see Ezugi using its casino streaming technology to broadcast live table action direct from the casino floor, including baccarat tables and VIP tables, the tech provider said in a press statement.

Grand Dragon Resorts is owned and operated by Dai Long Co Ltd. The property is located in Chreythom, Kandal province, and offers several types of table games.

“This fits extremely well with Grand Dragon Resorts’s brand strategy,” Darren Heng, chief executive of Dai Long Co, said in the statement.

Kfir Kugler, chief executive of Ezugi, said: “Live casino streaming is increasingly popular with players as those off-site … can see, hear and interact with actual tables and dealers.”

Ezugi’s press statement did not include details on the financials of the deal. The company states it provides live dealer studio solutions across three continents: Europe, South America and now Asia.

Proxy betting of the type Grand Dragon Resorts is offering could appeal to mainland Chinese players that are already a customer of Macau junkets but that prefer not to be seen in Macau following the anti-corruption crackdown on the mainland. However, mainland China prohibits – and tries to block – any websites offering online betting to its citizens.

Other casinos in Indochina are also launching proxy betting operations. The Grand Ho Tram casino resort in Vietnam is to start offering to high-rollers live telephone betting on some of its tables this month, a senior executive has confirmed to GGRAsia.

Proxy betting is however barred in Asian’s two largest gaming jurisdictions by revenue – Macau and Singapore.

Macau’s regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, bars Macau casinos and gaming promoters from doing live online video streaming of the gambling games conducted in the city’s casinos. But some casino operators appear to have tolerated situations in which off-site players phone in their bets to a junket agent present at the table.

In October, GGRAsia reported that Sands China Ltd had told its Macau junket partners that phone betting would no longer be allowed in its Macau casinos.

Also in October, Singapore’s parliament passed the Remote Gambling Act, barring online gambling within the city-state, and barring banks from processing any payments by Singapore citizens for online gambling services.