Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Launches New Asian Gaming Area

Just after completing a huge expansion project, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, hopes that the recent Chinese New Year will bring in more Asian players in their facility.

Costing a total of $770 million, the expansion includes additional hotel suites to handle additional visitors, a concert hall, new restaurants and other features that hopefully will improve the customer service record of Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

The General Manager of the Hard Rock Casino, Mark Gore, said on February 26th, 2010 that they are very interested in pursuing the vast gambling market of untapped Asian gaming dollars. With the two week holiday to launch their advertisement campaign, Gore hopes that the New Year will bring good fortune to their hotel and casino.

With Macau as the main gambling source in the Asian market, the Hard Rock casino brand suffers a serious disadvantage: rather than managing and operating their own Hotel Casino Resort, as is the case with other gaming giants like Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage, Hard Rock Casino only has a restaurant hotel in another chain's resort.

While Mark Gore intends to rely on that name recognition in the attempt to attract more players from other countries, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino will focus their advertisement campaign on Asian gamblers living in the US.

Aside from their hotel, Hard Rock has constructed a new gaming pit for Asian players. The new pit will offer the games of baccarat and mini-baccarat, which is a big hit among Asian players. There will also be a special room for baccarat high-rollers.

The high-limit room will allow players to avoid the loud music and other players. There is also a noodle bar and an Asian theme restaurant next to the high-roller room. Aside from that, some of Hard Rock's new hotel suites were designed with an Asian feel with the help of a feng shui expert.

Hard Rock have made all of these gaming changes with the intention of improving their gaming income ratio as their overall gaming proceeds accounted for 32% in 2008, much smaller than is typically found in similar properties in the gaming market.

Monday, April 12, 2010
John Palmer