Grand Ho Tram casino ops pathway similar to Macau: CEO

Mar 13, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Casino player preferences and the way gaming operations are conducted at The Grand Ho Tram resort (pictured) in Vietnam are “similar” to Macau, says Walt Power, chief executive of The Grand Ho Tram Resort and Casino.

“It’s primarily a baccarat market,” he told GGRAsia in an interview. Proportionately there were “a few more blackjack players and roulette players than there would be in Macau,” he added.

Mr Power, an 18-year veteran of Macau, said “80 percent to 85 percent” of the complex’s casino facilities’ players were drawn from three key markets, ranked in descending order of presence: South Korea, mainland China, and Taiwan.

“It’s approximately 40 percent [South] Korean, but then if you add [mainland] China and Taiwan together,” those markets account for a higher percentage.

The Grand Ho Tram’s casino is not currently permitted to serve local players.

In terms of the social background of its present roster of casino clients, Mr Power noted: “I wouldn’t say it’s much different than the target market located in [China’s] Guangdong province that goes to Macau: business owners, factory owners, people in international trade.”

He added of the gambling clients: “There are a million stories. Each one is quite interesting. But in general, the profile is very similar to what you see in Guangdong province.”

Some of them are expatriates who run businesses within Vietnam, and are based in Ho Chi Minh City, a conurbation of more than nine million. The resort has a sales and marketing office in that city.

Bets at The Grand Ho Tram’s main casino The Grand Club (pictured below) are denominated in U.S. dollars, rather than the local currency, the Vietnamese dong.

GGRAsia observed the main gaming floor at The Grand Ho Tram on a Friday night before a recent crowd-drawing WBO Asia Pacific boxing event on a Saturday. On the main gaming floor – unlike Macau – smoking at tables is still permitted.

On that floor on the Friday, a baccarat table with a US$50,000 maximum bet was seen, an amount equivalent to nearly HKD391,000, and had at least five players present, over a series of hands. On Saturdays and Sundays, the property also offers US$100,000-maximum bet baccarat play.

The Citigroup monthly surveys of Macau premium-play tables, consider single bets of HKD100,000 and above as “whale” category in terms of value of players for the casino hosting them.

Another of The Grand Club main-floor tables on Friday night was marked at a more modest US$200 minimum bet, though that still dwarfs most main-floor bets in Las Vegas, Nevada, casinos in the United States. The Grand Ho Tram operates 90 live-dealer tables and circa 500 slot machines and electronic table game terminals.

The resort also offers a VIP gaming area (picture below supplied by venue).

Mr Power told GGRAsia: “The combat sports programme at The Grand Ho Tram certainly drives hotel occupancy as well as gaming volume.”

He observed: “In most gaming properties, 20 percent of your guests generate 80 percent of the gaming volume. To add a side note, in my tenure in Macau, I clearly observed this factor at the so-called ‘premium mass’ tables… Sometimes it’s a matter of ‘who’ not ‘how many’.”

The CEO noted The Grand Ho Tram has also been updating its slot machine and electronic gaming machine offer.

“You can see dramatic improvements in our performance in that area,” as a result of that effort, said Mr Power.

Without such investment, “you can’t compete” with Ho Chi Minh City electronic gaming parlours aimed at foreign passport holders, and which may be only a “10-minute drive away” from that customer segment, he noted.

Referring both to overall regulation in Vietnam, and day-to-day management of gaming at the property, Mr Power told GGRAsia, referring first to Macau’s casino regulator: “We don’t have a DICJ or a Nevada Gaming Control Board.”

Though he added that “a lot of the internal controls and protections” that are best practice in the industry, “we do… because it makes sense: we’re protecting the asset for our owners”.

He added: “All well-run casinos have a lot of common denominators.”

The major investor in The Grand Ho Tram is private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC. Vietnam-focused investment manager VinaCapital is also a backer.

The CEO stated: “Even though there’s no one from a ‘DICJ’ telling me to do A, B, or C, we’re still doing A, B, C because it makes sense to protect the game” in each product category.

Mr Power observed that in Vietnam, casino gaming is regulated “by various ministries including the Ministry of Finance, and the State Bank of Vietnam,” with overall control coordinated by the country’s prime minister.

Mr Power added, giving an overview of the casino sector generally in Asia Pacific, and the role of non-gaming in creating a compelling offer for visitors: “Typically when somebody visits a casino property, they want to get to a baccarat table as soon as possible and start playing. That being said, nobody, including the most dedicated casino player, wants to walk into a mausoleum…. An integrated resort is a living, breathing organism. It’s multifaceted. Everything [gaming and non-gaming] works to support the whole.”

(Updated March 15, 3.30pm)

Disclosure: The GGRAsia reporter was a guest of The Grand Ho Tram in Vietnam.

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