GGRAsia – Star Vegas in limited reopening from Sept 25: Donaco

Star Vegas in limited reopening from Sept 25: Donaco

Sep 25, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Star Vegas Resort and Club (pictured), a casino resort on Cambodia’s border with Thailand, was due a “limited reopening” from Friday (September 25), said its promoter, Australia-listed Donaco International Ltd, in a filing the same day.

The property was “set to operate on a limited scale for patrons located in Cambodia,” stated the firm, implying that for now, at least, the venue was not expecting cross-border trade from Thailand, where casinos are not permitted.

The firm stated it did not expect “any material additional expenses to be incurred following the limited reopening of the casino,” noting that “the border with Thailand, where most of the casino’s patrons have traditionally originated, remains closed”.

Donaco said the property reopening would nonetheless “allow the company to test its operational systems whilst ensuring the health and well-being of staff and visitors”.

In a July 29 filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, Donaco said it had been awaiting a Cambodian-government inspection of Star Vegas as a key step to reopen. The venue was closed on a temporary basis from April 1, as part of Cambodia’s Covid-19 countermeasures.

Donaco stated in its Friday filing: “The company will continue to maintain its tight cost control strategy, while operations remain at limited operating capacity; and management will maintain the discretion to tailor up or down the pace of operations to local conditions.”

It added: “Donaco’s two casinos are ready to resume… full operations as and when conditions ameliorate, post Covid-19 and in conjunction with the flow of cross border travel with the reopening of international borders.”

On September 1, Donaco said in a filing it had significantly narrowed its fiscal-year loss as of June 30, to just above AUD58.9 million (US$41.6 million), from AUD198.0 million a year earlier, even though the second half of the reporting period was affected by Covid-19.

In early April, a time when Star Vegas – and Donaco’s other Asian casino hotel, Aristo International, in Lao Cai on Vietnam’s border with China – were both closed, Donaco said it expected a “cash burn run rate”of between US$800,000 and US$900,000 per month. Aristo International reopened casino operations in mid-May.