Caesars Goes After Chinese Gamblers in Las Vegas With WeChat Pay

Caesars Entertainment is hoping to win over some incoming Chinese travelers to Las Vegas by accepting payments via WeChat Pay, a popular social media platform with mobile transaction capabilities.

Unlike Las Vegas Sands, MGM and Wynn Resorts, which all have a substantial presence in China’s gambling hub of Macau, Caesars is far less known in the Asian country. Allowing citizens to pay for food, concert tickets, and retail items in person with the mobile app is ideally a way to get more Chinese patrons inside the company’s resorts.

Customers scan merchant QR codes from their mobile devices to compete their purchases in US dollars, with WeChat charging a transaction fee. WeChat Pay is debuting at Caesars Palace, the LINQ Promenade, and Paris Las Vegas.

“We want to do this for our Chinese customers카지노사이트 to make them feel at home,” Caesars Entertainment VP of International Marketing Bruce Bommarito told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We have been working hard on the Chinese market.”

Last September, Caesars began allowing Chinese tourists to book rooms through the WeChat social media platform. Nine Caesars properties in Las Vegas were included in that rollout.

WeChat claims to have over 900 million monthly active users, 90 percent of whom are Chinese. Caesars says it will expand its WeChat Pay capabilities to more locations by the end of 2017.

Non-Gaming Revenue

As part of its bankruptcy proceedings, Caesars is looking to grow its non-gaming revenue. One way of doing that is by looking to license its brand and accompanying rewards program to regional and national hotel chains.

Gaming currently accounts for 58 percent of Caesars’ bottom line. Sixteen percent comes from food and beverage, 11 percent from entertainment, and hotel income accounts for 15 percent.

Allowing Chinese visitors to book their rooms on WeChat, and pay in person for food and other items, adheres to the corporation’s strategic mission.

Caesars recently completed a $200 million makeover of 450 guestrooms at Harrah’s Atlantic City. The resort also added several new restaurants, and renovated its pool and nightclub.

Chinese Boom

The Chinese economy has been blossoming in 2017, and that’s putting more money in more people’s pockets.

Foreign travel is on the rise, and though Beijing to Las Vegas is a 12-and-a-half-hour flight, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) estimates that 206,753 trips to Sin City originated from China in 2015, the last reported year. That represents a 10 percent gain on 2014 numbers, the highest increase of the top eight countries visiting Las Vegas.

Only Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and Germany sent more people to Las Vegas.

Hainan Airlines began nonstop service three times a week from Beijing and Las Vegas last December. Due to demand, the Chinese carrier upgraded its plane from a Boeing 787-8 to 787-9, which adds almost 40 more seats per trip.

Internet Gaming Entrepreneur Calvin Ayre Appointed Economic Envoy in Antigua and Barbuda

In a major career turnaround, online gambling pioneer Calvin Ayre is taking on a new role, advising the independent commonwealth country of Antigua and Barbuda on policies relating to blockchain technology and digital currencies. The Bodog founder’s new title will be “Special Economic Envoy.”

With the popularity of Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies continuing to rise, the Caribbean sovereign state wants to make sure it’s staying abreast of technological developments. Ayre is the perfect man for the job, as the cyber gaming magnate has focused much of his recent time on digital currencies while partnering with Craig Wright, who is self-proclaimed (although not universally embraced) as the creator of Bitcoin technology.

With regards to his new government role, Ayre said it’s “nice to have an opportunity to give back to my adopted homeland.” Ayre was born in Canada, but today holds dual citizenship with the motherland and Antigua.

Island Economy Reinvention

Antigua and Barbuda was one of the first jurisdictions to 바카라사이트embrace online gambling. That landed its government in hot water when the US began cracking down on internet casinos in the early 2000s.

The United States passed its Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 and banned offshore operators from accepting deposits from American citizens.

In 2000, Antigua and Barbuda had 100 licensed iGaming companies operating from the island. The country says the industry provided an annual economic benefit of over $100 million, and employed 2,000 people.

After the US placed an embargo on the operators and their payment facilitators, the industry was slashed by over 80 percent.

Ayre, who was only recently cleared by the federal government of felony charges relating to his operating of an online gambling business between 2006 and 2012, reportedly made over $1 billion from his Bodog site. But today, he seems primarily focused on what he believes to be the next internet boom: cybercurrency.

Ayre is reportedly running a tech company in Antigua that completes Bitcoin transactions on the public ledger. In this week’s press release, Antigua claims Ayre’s group “processes more Bitcoin transactions than any other platform in the world today.”

Antigua and Barbuda hopes that under Ayre’s leadership, the next wave of internet economic prosperity will return to the island territory.

Bitcoin Prophet of Profit

Investors around the world have been struggling to pinpoint how the future of Bitcoin will unfold. It hit $1,000 in late 2013, less than a year after trading began. But the price would later plummet, reaching a low of about $200 just two years later.

Some financial experts thought a retraction was in order late last year when Bitcoin was back over $1,000. At the time, Ayre made a bold prediction that $3,000 was in its future: he was right.

Since late 2015, Bitcoin has been on a tear, outperforming every stock market in the world. On December 9, 2015, a Bitcoin was selling for about $415. As of Wednesday afternoon Pacific Time, that same coin will cost you over $3,336.