Reports of a new Cambodian casino joint venture with Malaysian ties offer more questions than answers.
Over the weekend, Malaysian media outlet The Star reported that computer hard drive firm MQ Technology Bhd was teaming up with an entity known as Cambodian Resorts and Entertainment Co Ltd (CRE) on a $30m hotel, casino and theme park project in Banteay Chakrey in Prey Veng Province, on Cambodia’s southeast border with Vietnam.
The Star’s source claimed that CRE owned the land on which the proposed project would be built. CRE also has “a sister company which holds a casino license to operate on this land.”
Trouble is, the proposed site is around 100km from Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, home to NagaCorp’s flagship property NagaWorld. NagaCorp’s contract with the government ensures it exclusivity on casino operations within 200km of Phnom Penh until the year 2035.
The Star’s report suggested that the joint venture of MQ Technology and CRE would seek a local casino operator to manage the new property’s gaming operations. The paper’s source declined to specify whether NagaCorp had been asked to participate in the joint venture.
On Monday, the Phnom Penh Post linked CRE with Cambodian gaming firm VW Win Holdings, a subsidiary of Malaysian conglomerate Century Dynasty that operates the local CamLoto lottery business. CRE’s commercial registry documents list VW Win COO Michael Ho as a contact.
But Century Dynasty chairman Stanley Gooh Teik Keng told the Cambodian media outlet that neither VW Win, CamLoto nor Century Dynasty “have any involvement with MQ Technology to build a casino that I am aware of.”
Cambodian finance ministry deputy director Ros Phirun, a reliable source on the nation’s gaming industry, said his office had yet to receive any gaming license applications matching the joint venture’s description. However, Phirun suggested a casino could be built in Prey Veng so long as it wasn’t in the provincial capital and was intended to cater to Vietnamese gamblers.
