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Risky business Gambling is all about taking risks and nowhere more so than in some of Asia’s rapidly emerging markets.
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lack of regulation; lack of infrastructure; corruption; poor security and over reliance on visitors from China can mean that an investment that looked good on paper ends up being worth little more than the paper it was written on. For our focus section in the ASEAN edition of Asia Gaming Briefings, we take a look at some of the risks involved in gaming in Asia, both land-based and online. For our first article, we examine some of the likely risks to be faced by operators in Southeast Asian markets in 2019. After a year of nasty regulatory surprises in Malaysia in 2018, this year is expected to be relatively calm, as is also the case for Singapore. Though topline growth in these markets may be hard to find as the slowdown in China’s economy causes its high rollers to tighten their purse strings. In the Philippines, however, it’s a different story. The country’s mercurial president is likely to keep both land-based and online operators on their toes. Much of the future expansion in what has been one of the region’s best-performing markets will depend heavily on whether he has a change of heart towards the gaming industry.
Asia Gaming Briefings | March 2019
Our second article takes a similar approach, comparing and contrasting the risks and rewards of investment in Indochina. Both Vietnam and Cambodia are seen as having enormous potential. However, Vietnam’s regulated and measured approach to the industry is in stark contrast to the explosive growth in Cambodia, where long-delayed regulation has yet to see the light of day and hot money from China is driving expansion. In the world of eSports, operators are still struggling to work out how to tap the potential. We look at some of the more common pitfalls facing those trying to enter the sector and find a basic lack of understanding has lead to some reputation-shattering errors, such as taking bets on tournaments that don’t exist. Lastly, in our focus section we look at the risks for online gaming. As other jurisdictions around the world put in place regulation, most notably the U.S., Asia will face more competition for investment. That said, its potential is still too big to ignore and companies will need to learn how to mitigate the risks of operating in unregulated markets with often hostile governments.
