Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN AUG 2020 34 NagaCorp Founder and Controlling Shareholder, Dr Chen Lip Keong. ナガコープの創業者で支配株主のチェン・リップ・キョン博士 strong growth from Thailand, Indonesia and Dr Chen’s native Malaysia. Accompanying visitor expansion is a growing expat business community in Phnom Penh of more than 100,000. What local media terms a burgeoning “Chinatown” has mushroomed on Naga’s doorstep. NagaCorp executives credit expats with fueling business since the casino reopened on 8 July with a lion dance and customers lining up to enter. NagaCorp officials emphasize NagaWorld was never fully closed. Cambodia has been relatively lightly touched by COVID-19, with just 171 cases reported as of mid-July, and some visitors have chosen to wait out the virus there rather than returning to harder hit countries. Cambodia’s borders also never closed, although visitor entry requires coronavirus test results, quarantine for 14 days and medical insurance coverage of at least US$50,000. Despite those barriers, visitors have trickled into the kingdom. To serve those groups, Naga’s hotel facilities remained open after the 1 April casino closure, with 10% to 20% hotel occupancy reported. Government mandated the closure of spas, bars, night clubs and karaoke, but Naga’s retail stores and some restaurants also remained open. Naga executives say they ran those skeleton operations with health and safety measures that gave the resort and Cambodia’s Ministry of Health a template for reopening the casino. SAFETY FIRST Under the reopening, all employees and guests are temperature screened and required to wear masks. Table games were initially restricted to VIP areas – open to all at VIP table limits – with a maximum of three COVER STORY