Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN AUG 2019 24 Star Entertainment Group Managing Director and CEO Matt Bekier スター・エンターテインメント・グループのマット・べキアー代表取締役兼CEO COVER STORY bidder met all necessary environmental, planning and regulatory approvals. Chinese-backed ASF Group was ultimately named as preferred developer in 2014, giving it first right to come up with a suitable design, but those plans changed after the 2015 state elections with the opposition Labor Party sweeping into power and quickly terminating the cruise terminal concept. A revised AU$3 billion casino-resort proposal from ASF was also rejected and the project killed off for good in 2017 amid intense community lobbying. ASF, for its trouble, received a AU$9 million compensation payout for costs incurred while the second casino discussion was abandoned completely and looked to be dead in the water until its sudden revival in March this year. A STAR IS BORN In August 2018, Star Entertainment Group began construction of its AU$450 million Dorsett Hotel – a 53-storey tower featuring a 316-room hotel and 423 apartments on The Star Gold Coast’s 6-acre site in Broadbeach. The Dorsett follows AU$100 million already invested in upgrading the original Jupiter’s, another AU$50 million in additional restaurants and AU$450 million to develop lavish six-star hotel The Darling, which opened early last year. That’s quite an investment for a company already committing AU$3.6 billion to its flagship Queen’s Wharf Development in Brisbane and another AU$500 million in Sydney, but The Star Gold Coast is already proving a game-changer. In the six months to 31 December 2018, the revamped property recorded an 11.8% year-on-year increase in visitation, 22.6% increase in normalized revenue and 90.9% increase in VIP turnover, more than double that of Crown Perth. VIP gaming wasn’t even part of the offering at Jupiter’s but such has been the transformation that The Star Gold Coast now has legitimate claims to the best offering in Australia,