Cambodian government officials have given their approval to a Malaysian company’s plans to develop the “Macau of Southeast Asia” in the seaside town of Sihanoukville.

On Friday, the Phnom Penh Post reported that Salient Ventures, a subsidiary of newly incorporated Malaysian firm SV International, had received investment approval on March 1 from Cambodia’s Council of Ministers to develop a “casino city” featuring hotels and casinos – some offering Chinese-facing online gambling sites – in the city of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand.

SV International recently released a promotional video (viewable below) claiming it was in the process of “bulk acquiring every potential development lot” in the city’s West Port area and was also looking to purchase existing hotels “for renovation and equipping them with gaming licenses.”

As with most Cambodian gaming stories, legal clarity is somewhat lacking. Salient Ventures claims to have already obtained one gaming license in Sihanoukville, but SV International’s website currently lists only one gaming license in the Cambodian border town of Poipet.

Cambodian government officials have given their approval to a Malaysian company’s plans to develop the “Macau of Southeast Asia” in the seaside town of Sihanoukville.

On Friday, the Phnom Penh Post reported that Salient Ventures, a subsidiary of newly incorporated Malaysian firm SV International, had received investment approval on March 1 from Cambodia’s Council of Ministers to develop a “casino city” featuring hotels and casinos – some offering Chinese-facing online gambling sites – in the city of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand.

SV International recently released a promotional video (viewable below) claiming it was in the process of “bulk acquiring every potential development lot” in the city’s West Port area and was also looking to purchase existing hotels “for renovation and equipping them with gaming licenses.”

As with most Cambodian gaming stories, legal clarity is somewhat lacking. Salient Ventures claims to have already obtained one gaming license in Sihanoukville, but SV International’s website currently lists only one gaming license in the Cambodian border town of Poipet.

The troubled Baha Mar resort casino project in the Bahamas is officially up for sale following the appointment of a Canadian property firm tasked with identifying potential buyers.

This week, the Bahamas Tribune reported that the Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) firm handling the receivership of the unfinished $3.5b Baha Mar integrated resort had appointed Toronto-headquartered Colliers International to market the property to prospective buyers.

The Bahamas Supreme Court has signed off on the appointment, which is aimed at finding someone to take the property off the hands of its principal creditor, China Export-Import Bank (EXIM), which foreclosed on the property last year after project developer Sarkis Izmirlian found himself unable to pay primary contractor China Construction America (CCA) and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Trouble is, despite Izmirlian’s original claim that the project was 97% complete, other observers have estimated a new buyer would have to invest anywhere from $600m to $1b to bring the project up to snuff and engage in sufficient marketing to disassociate the whiff of failure that has attached itself to the property.