Crown Resorts Closes Eight Offices in Asia

Crown Resorts seems to be in hot water when it comes to Asian business. Eight of their offices are suddenly hard to find. This is following an arrest of 19 of their staff who are expected to appear at a Shanghai court this week.

In addition to this, earlier this month Melco split from Crown for their indiscreet marketing practices in conservative China. This lead to the arrests.

 

Asian Offices Removed from Crown Resorts Website

The removal of nine Asian offices from Crown Resorts’ website raises a few questions. They have suspended marketing in mainland China to focus on Australia.

Ben Lee who is a managing partner at IGamix, an Asian gaming consultancy says “It doesn’t make sense. They have shut their South-east Asian offices, which were never at risk, and they’ve kept only one office open, which happens to be China-facing.”

Visits by an Australian News network, to offices in Thailand, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia and Taiwan lead to closed doors.

What About Attracting Asian VIP Gamblers?

Crown Resorts is confident that it is not binding to keep their Asian offices to attract Asian players. Sudhir Kale who had worked on projects with Crown Resorts before said that Crown’s decision indicates that “Hey, we have shut down most of our offices. We’ve learnt from the experiences. And not just in China, but in other markets, we are taking the appropriate steps to prevent these things from happening again.”

Kale also implied that Crown could make the use of junket operators to contact High Roller gamblers. He closed off by saying that “Hong Kong can be the Asian hub for Crown to continue exploring businesses in the region.”

Crown Resorts – Going Forward

Crown Resorts has shown an interest in acquiring a Japanese gaming license. This is ensuing a gambling ban lift by legislators in Japan. Crown Resorts will have to stand in line to be shortlisted for a license.