Casino chief takes it easy

l CAIRNS CBD

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Nick Dalton

REEF Hotel Casino boss Allan Tan, who is stepping away from his full-time roles at the entertainment venue, is proud of the way the business has grown since joining 20 years ago.

He said initially the casino made losses until he worked with the two main shareholders – Casinos Austria International (CAIC) and the Accor hotel group – to turn the gaming venue and hotel into one entity.

He said from that time in 1999 the hotel-casino had been profitable and in the last financial year made a record profit of nearly $18 million.

“It has been a very successful model and Casinos Austria International and Accor have a very co-operative relationship,” Mr Tan said. “Our record profit took place during COVID and I am very pleased about that but COVID is not necessarily over. We are reading about more cases coming up.

“It is important to realise COVID is not just a medical issue but has had important ramifications of all parts of our life, both socially and economically.”

Mr Tan said the hotel-casino had done well without international tourists since COVID but there was still no sign of them returning in force.

“We hardly see any in meaningful numbers,” he said.

Another challenge the hotelcasino faced nearly 10 years ago was when the Fung family attempted to buy the business.

“There was a lot of work done. They did offer a very good price but it was not completed due to probity,” Mr Tan said.

He said the hotel-casino was also carefully watching the ‘predicaments’ of the bigger southern casinos in the south.

“We must continue to to be alert and manage risk carefully,” Mr Tan said.

He said he would still be in- volved in the trust and CAIC as a non-executive director.

“I think it is time to go and it is good that there will be a replacement and fresh blood,” Mr Tan said.

“I am 63, but age is not a number. I will still be a nonexecutive director and not completely retired. I’m not just going caravanning for the next two years.”

Mr Tan has been executive director of Reef Corporate Services (RCS), which is the responsible entity of the trust, for 17 years and will assist in the transition of a new trust and RCS chief executive officer.

Trust chairman Philip Basha paid tribute to Mr Tan.

“During Mr Tan’s more than 20 years at RCS/RCT, he held several positions with RCS/ RCT and also within CAIC, including as CEO of CAIC until

August 21, 2020,” he said.

“The board of directors would like to thank Mr Tan for his significant contribution to RCT/RCS in his role as an executive director and look forward to his continued involvement as a non-executive director.”

Mr Tan joined Casinos Austria International Limited in 1995 as chief financial officer and company secretary. He also holds a number of executive directorships within the Casinos Austria Group. He once worked for Jupiter’s Casino (now The Star Gold Coast) and Bond University on the Gold Coast.

Mr Tan holds an honours degree in Commerce (accounting) from the University of Birmingham, England and also worked for Deloittes in London and Brisbane.