About this app
How to play Grand Casanova
In any event, successive regulatory tightening and tax increases have already created a “reasonably effective deterrent” to market entry.
There is a second complication. The relentless flow of Commission statements may eventually make enforcement less damaging rather than more.
“The regulatory failures are unhelpful but perhaps the sheer number and regularity of them has made them less remarkable, such that they become ‘wallpaper’,” Waugh says.
What is Grand Casanova?
Macau generated MOP293.3 billion ($36.3 billion) in gross gaming revenue in 2019, equivalent to 65.8% of its GDP. In 2025, GGR stood at approximately $30.9 billion, still accounting for around 59% of GDP.
Yet Macau’s IR proposition extends well beyond the casino floor. Luxury accommodation, restaurants, shopping, concerts, conventions, art and other forms of entertainment have become part of a wider, equally indulgent experience surrounding gaming.
For Japan, the question is whether this broader proposition could make casino resorts more socially and culturally palatable by giving visitors reasons to come, other than gambling.
How to play Grand Casanova
Corfai Capital Managing Partner and Founder Ben Robinson is even more bullish on the price, pointing to the circumstances in which GiG was able to acquire the business.
“On the numbers GiG has disclosed it looks cheap,” he says. “€16.4 million for 80% implies an EV of €20.5 million against roughly $50 million of run-rate NGR, 30% year-on-year growth and positive cash generation. €6m of cash on day one for a business generating $50 million of NGR tells you who needed the deal.”
Although Bally’s takeover of Evoke may have prompted a slightly discounted price and a quick decision for GiG to buy 888Africa, the continent has been part of GiG’s plans for a while Richards insists. “We received the information memorandum in Q2 2026,” Richards adds. “Africa has long been a market that our CEO Richard Carter has admired and his insight enabled us to move quickly to be able to announce the principal commercial terms at our results at the end of August.”
