Hong Kong-based gaming operator Silver Heritage has secured government approval in Nepal to run the Shangri-La casino at the Shangri-La Hotel & Resort.

According to Nepal’s Department of Tourism, under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Silver Heritage plans to run the casino as a joint venture with a local Nepalese company and to invest more than NPR1 billion ($10.12 million) in its new project.

In the short term, Silver Heritage has been granted the green light to prepare to start its operations of the Shangri-La casino, at least as soon as the ministry’s operation manual to run casinos in line with the new regulations are drafted. The manual is what it is, a document that specifically lists instructions, and step-by-step procedures on how to run and operate casinos.

“As soon as the manual is drafted, Silver Heritage will be issued the final operating authorization,” Department of Tourism Director General Tulasi Gautam told Asia News Network.

Silver Heritage is the only the operator that has applied to operate a casino under the new casino regulation. Hotel Everest’s Everest Casino and a casino in Soaltee have expressed their intentions to resume operations after all the casinos were shut down in April 2014 for unpaid royalty dues and lack of operating permits under the new casino regulations.

Over in Palau, those who have been pining to see a casino in the western Pacific island will have to wait a little while longer because majority of the Senate has voted to reject a new proposal that would establish an exclusive casino license in the island country.

A bill supporting a casino license passed the country’s House of Delegates with some lawmakers arguing that a casino in the island could help generate as much as tens of millions in revenue and reduce Palau’s seeming over reliance on international donors, most specifically the United States.