Just a little more than a week ago, the Asian arm of Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Sands China, cut a deal with its creditors to ease up on certain requirements tied to its credit lines. Needing some relief from the revenue black hole caused by COVID-19, it wants to ensure it had some extra padding to cover its financial commitments. Despite reporting that it has almost $2.5 billion in liquid assets and a reported $4.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, has followed in the footsteps of its subsidiary, and has now secured its own deal with lenders designed to rewrite certain arrangements following an agreement it made with them just over a year ago. 

LVS filed a notice (pdf) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week, indicating that it and the Bank of Nova Scotia, along with other lenders, had agreed to make changes to the terms of a $1.5-billion revolving line of credit. Going forward, the Sheldon Adelson-led company has to keep liquidity of at least $350 million, recorded on the last day of each month, instead of a consolidated leverage ratio lower than 4:1. As was the case with the Sands China arrangement, though, dividend payments are now off the table unless LVS keeps over $1 billion in liquidity “on a pro forma basis” after having paid the dividend. 

The SEC filing explains, “Pursuant to the Amendment, the Existing Revolving Credit Agreement was amended to (a) remove the requirement for the Borrower to maintain a maximum consolidated leverage ratio of 4.00:1.00 as of the last day of any fiscal quarter of the Company during the period commencing on October 31, 2020, through and including December 31, 2021 (such period, the “Relevant Period”); (b) include a requirement for the Borrower to maintain a minimum liquidity of $350 million as of the last day of each month during the Relevant Period; (c) include a requirement for the Borrower to deliver a liquidity certificate to the Administrative Agent within seven business days of the last day of each month during the Relevant Period; and (d) include a limitation on the Borrower’s ability to declare or pay any dividend or other distribution during the period commencing on the Closing Date, through and including December 31, 2021, unless liquidity is greater than $1.0 billion on a pro forma basis after giving effect to such dividend or distribution.”

Given the fact that, previously, the annual dividend payout hovered around $3.16 per share, shareholders most likely won’t be too pleased with the arrangement. Based on that amount, the casino operator will be able to hang onto about $2.34 billion if it doesn’t make any payout, but Adelson most certainly wants to do whatever he can to restore the dividends. He and his wife, Miriam, are the biggest benefactors of the dividend payments since their combined 397 million shares equals around $1.25 billion.

After Suncity Group Holdings locked in a very lucrative agreement and some additional funding for the project, it got to work on the development of a new casino resort project in the Philippines. The property, located at the Westside City Project in Manila, is supported by a 45-year operating agreement given to the junket operator by Travellers International Hotel Group, and the first shovels have already started making way for the massive property. GGRAsia sent a request for an update to Suncity to find out when the resort might be ready, and the company responded by indicating that everything is on track for the initial phase to be completed on time, toward the end of 2022. Other phases of the project will then follow. 

Suncity expects the hotel and casino to be ready in just a little over two years, with the rest of the amenities and facilities opening within a year after. This is similar to what the company announced this past June and explained to GGRAsia, “Whilst we are confident that we could stick to the grand opening schedule of Westside City Project in 2023, we would like to open the doors of the casino floor as early as possible, targeting 2022 year-end.” The initial groundbreaking had run into a couple of obstacles because of COVID-19 restrictions in Manila. 

Those restrictions are still causing some difficulty for Suncity, with the company indicating that no one, including company chairman Alvin Chau, has been able to take a trip to the Philippines to see how things are going. For now, the company can only rely on its people on the ground to stay on top of things and report all the progress that’s taking place. As soon as the travel restrictions are lifted, though, there’s a good possibility many of Suncity’s upper echelon will be taking a field trip to the Philippines.

Westside is part of Entertainment City, a massive, 297-acre “build-it-and-they-will-come” scheme in the Philippines modeled after the success of Macau’s gaming market in the Cotai district. The biggest difference is currently centered on the overall progress of the development, which has had to deal with COVID-19 as it was trying to gain traction. In contrast, Cotai has a solid track record of operations and will be able to rebound a little easier. 

Derek Stevens was right. The man behind the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate casinos in Las Vegas predicted this past summer that the launch of his latest project, Circa, would take place well ahead of schedule. Given the fact that this is the first brand-new casino to dot the Vegas landscape in 40 years, his forecast may have been seen more as whimsical fantasy than anything else at the time. However, by the end of the day yesterday, it became perfectly clear that he was right. Initially scheduled to open this coming December, Circa could be open before the end of October. 

The last remaining piece of the puzzle fell into place yesterday when the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) got together for one of its regular meetings. On the agenda was the license application Stevens had submitted for Circa, and the commission listened intently to him as he made his case on a virtual video call. He also showed off a short video on his new dream, adding details about the amenities and grandeur the property will offer. 

The NGC was apparently hooked, as it unanimously voted yes to the license request. Next up, Circa will launch its casino operations toward the end of next month, with large portions of the project, including most of its 777 hotel rooms, going live before the end of the year. The property, which spans an entire city block once occupied by the Las Vegas Club and other venues on the western end of the Fremont Street Experience, will include six restaurants, five bars, a large parking facility, six swimming pools and no kids – it’s designed to be an adults-only resort. 

It will also have a sportsbook that could make most sportsbooks look tiny. The three-story addition will reportedly have a 78-million-pixel-high-definition screen and be able to host up to 1,000 spectators – once the COVID-19 restrictions are completely dissolved – and is billed as the world’s largest sports gambling facility. This will also be a new, second home for the Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN), which will broadcast shows directly from a studio inside the property. VSiN, however, will continue to maintain its other studio at the South Point Casino, as well as its newest addition in Illinois. 

Philippines-based online gambling operators may not be fleeing the country in droves but the government’s online golden goose appears to have flown the coop, possibly for good.

On Thursday, a Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque tried to downplay the Finance Secretary’s Wednesday comments that Philippine Online Gaming Operators (POGO) were making a run for the border, opening up huge gaps in Manila’s commercial real estate sector as they shut down their customer support operations.

Roque told the press Thursday that there was “no mass exodus” of POGOs from the country. Roque claimed that only one gaming operator had actually left the country and that was because the Chinese government was probing it for funding demonstrators (presumably in Hong Kong).

Roque said the confusion arose because only “about 20 plus” POGO operators had been cleared by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to resume operations following the shutdown of the POGO industry this spring due to COVID-19. The BIR subsequently said POGOs could only resume operations if they paid their outstanding tax bills.

A busy weekend of Premier League action is all set to take place across the weekend as huge clashes at the top and bottom of the division are sure to give some fans the best weekend of the year and others that horrible sinking feeling.

Who’ll win when Liverpool and Arsenal clash at Anfield? Can Manchester United overcome Brighton on the South Coast? There are some very tasty games lined up across Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Brighton & Hove Albion vs. Manchester United (Saturday, 12.30 GMT kick-off)

In-form Brighton host Manchester United in what should be a very entertaining game on the South Coast. With Tariq Lamptey starring against both Chelsea and Newcastle, the right-back in likely to terrorise Luke Shaw as Manchester United’s much-maligned left-hand side is going to be under close scrutiny.

Casino operator Penn National Gaming (PNG) saw its shares tumble on Thursday despite the initial success of its Barstool Sportsbook app in Pennsylvania.

On Thursday, PNG announced that it had commenced an underwritten public offering of 14m shares, with a 30-day option for the underwriters to acquire an additional 2.1m shares. PNG says it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, which hopefully includes paying back some of the debt it took on when the pandemic hit.   

Investors (perhaps even some of those Robin Hood types) promptly ran for the exits. PNG’s shares closed Thursday’s trading down 7.3% to just under $64 and lost slightly more ground in after-hours trading. The shares are now well below Tuesday’s peak of $74.36 but remain considerably better than their $4.52 nadir in March as COVID-19 forced the shutdown of nearly all US casinos.  

In announcing its share sale, PNG offered some updates on its recent activity, including the performance of its reopened casinos in the third quarter through September 21. Pandemic health and safety restrictions resulted in revenue falling 11% from the same period last year, while earnings were down 18%.

After a tumultuous battle Phil Hellmuth triumphed for a second consecutive time against Antonio Esfandiari in the $200,000 game High Stakes Duel on PokerGO.

In the first bout back at the start of August, Hellmuth reigned supreme, and it was a case of same again this time round as The Poker Brat beat The Magician into the proverbial top hat.

The freshest of a raft of great shows on PokerGO, the series features a $50,000 buy-in for each player, which upon one player losing, can be doubled if the two want to go at it again. At any stage, should the loser drop out, someone else can take their seat, with a potentially huge $12.8 million prizepool being on the line by Round 8.

This, of course, was Round 2, and Esfandiari was more than confident in the weigh-in, hosted by Nick Schulman. Declaring himself, “Ready to tie it up and see if he challenges me for Round 3”, said the man known as ‘The Magician’. “When its poker, its war, and there is nobody I want to beat more except for maybe Phil Laak – they’re a very close first and second.”

The PokerStars WCOOP Main Event concluded in dramatic fashion as Andre Marques was crowned champion, winning the lion’s share of the $10 million prizepool in the process.

It was an exciting final day that took six hours to wrap as Portuguese player Marques came out on top of the 1,977 total entries in the online behemoth in terms of poker tournaments.

It was Dutch player Teun Mulder who started the day as chip leader, but neither Marques or Robin Ylitalo were too far off the leader and the trio all held their chip control as both short stacks busted first. Cecilia Cafaro finished in 9th place for $99,997 – why they don’t round-up all amounts by the odds $3 in $10 million on the final table we’ll never know – before ‘77atlant77’ cashed for $140,280 one hand later.

It was Andre Marques who dealt death each time to those to two opponents, but he had nothing to do with Michael Telker’s tournament demise in 7th place. His suited ace was no match for Andriy Lyubovetskiy’s pocket tens and the field was reduced further when Denys Chufarin busted in 6th place after losing out to Robin Ylitalo. When Andriy Lyubovetskiy’s king-jack was dominated out of contention by the ace-jack of German player Tonio Röder, only four players were left.