Ex-Greek Mythology junket to run Cambodia VIP room

Dec 01, 2017 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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A former junket operator at Macau’s currently-shuttered Greek Mythology Casino is to run a VIP room in a casino in Cambodia near the country’s border with Thailand, according to a Thursday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

A wholly-owned unit of Hong Kong-listed gaming investor Amax International Holdings Ltd has agreed a three-year deal to rent a VIP room at the casino in Poipet, Cambodia.

The subsidiary, Victor Mind Global Ltd, has arranged the deal with an entity called “Crown Resorts Co Ltd” – which GGRAsia understands has no connection to the Australian casino company Crown Resorts Ltd.

Under the deal – effective from December 1 – the operation of 13 VIP baccarat tables in the VIP room will be outsourced by Victor Mind Global to an “independent operator”. The VIP room had been “licensed” to that independent operator since April 2016, according to the filing.

The filing said the unidentified operator was “one of the top junkets of the Greek Mythology Casino from 2006 to 2011”.

The Poipet VIP room it is to run is named in Thursday’s filing by Amax International as being at “Genting Crown Casino”. GGRAsia understands the venue has no connection with either Australia’s Crown Resorts or Malaysian gaming operator Genting Bhd and its units.

Under the announced arrangement, the licensor will charge CNY500,000 (US$75,584) per month in the first year; CNY550,000 per month in the second year; and CNY600,000 per month in the third year, with all fees inclusive of tax.

Casino Greek Mythology, which operated in Macau under a so-called service agreement with local casino concessionaire SJM Holdings Ltd, has become part of a business wrangle between Ng Man Sun, chairman and chief executive of Amax International, and his former domestic partner.

Amax International owns 24.8 percent of an entity called Greek Mythology (Macau) Entertainment Group Corp Ltd, according to Amax International’s 2017 annual report, filed in July, but says it has been unable for some time to get “access to and control over” books and business records of Greek Mythology.

The casino was shut down by Macau’s regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, on December 31, 2015 at the request of SJM Holdings. At the time, SJM Holdings’ chief executive, Ambrose So Shu Fai, told Macau public broadcaster TDM that the closure was for renovation.

The Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel, where Casino Greek Mythology was located, has also been shuttered since July 22, 2016 under the order of the Macao Government Tourism Office due to “serious administrative irregularities” and “illegal reconstructions”. The closure was for a period of six months. The operating licence was later handed back to the city’s authorities before the sanction expired.

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