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Winna Club

The Community behind the Network

Where HOT100 relationships become year-round business

Winna Club
The 5 Star Hoiana Resort & Golf Luxury hotel where the HOT100 was held in 2024

If you understand the true value of HOT100, this is the next step.

You know the pivotal moments aren’t on the conference agenda. It’s the multi-million dollar deal forged over a private dinner. It’s the game-changing introduction facilitated on the golf course. It’s the strategic partnership that launched over a final drink.

This is the power of a perfectly curated environment. 

Winna Club is that environment, sustained for twelve months a year — not just a once-a-year connection.

WHAT WINNA CLUB IS

The premier, invitation-only membership for senior operators, private investors, technology leaders, and founders in the Asian gaming industry and beyond.

This is a highly curated community—a vetted circle of peers built on trust and consequential relationships. We deliver critical intelligence, exclusive events, and high-value introductions that remain completely proprietary.

WHY IT WORKS

Asian gaming is one of the most relationship-dependent, access-restricted industries in the world. Regulatory grey areas mean operators are selective about who they’re seen with and who they share information with. 

The reason Winna Club works isn’t the venue or the agenda — it’s that the curator has spent two decades living and working inside the Asian gaming industry, where trust is a fundamental requirement.

That access is what Winna Club members are joining. Not just a community — the community that the industry’s decision-makers already trust.

The Founding 50: Membership is strictly capped at fifty Founding Members. Priority access is reserved exclusively for HOT100 alumni. Once these places are filled, all future access is granted by application or through existing member referrals.

WHAT YOU GET

The HOT100 Retreat (Winna Circle & Operator tiers):

One flagship gathering per year at a five-star resort. Golf, refined dinners, and the kind of unhurried conversations where real business gets done — away from cameras, agendas, and audiences. Available as a standalone ticket at €3,000. Included in your membership

Private Dinners: Investor and operator dinners for 15 to 20 people in different cities to coincide with major global gaming events. Themed, curated, invitation-only.

Early Access to Winna Conferences: Priority tickets — often complimentary — to all future Winna Media events in Asia and Europe, before they open to the public.

Intelligence Briefings: Not press releases. Not recaps. Analysis on regulatory shifts, M&A activity, market opportunities, and enforcement activities.

Member Directory: Join the Founding Members and have private conversations with Members, or use the group as a sounding board.

Curated Introductions: Tell us who you’re looking for — a founder, a regional partner, a regulatory connection — and we’ll find a way to make the introduction.

Sponsorship Discounts: 10-20% across all Winna Media events and packages, depending on the tier.

MEMBERSHIP TIERS

Membership Tiers
Winna Circle Winna Club
(Supplier)
Winna Club
(Operator)
Annual Fee €5,000 €2,500 €1,500
HOT100 Retreat
Conference Access
Investor / Operator Dinners
Intelligence Briefings
Private Member Directory
Sponsorship Discount 20% 10% 10%

Tickets are transferable to a colleague or can be gifted to a client. Winna Media has final approval on all substitutions.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Many of the most influential operators in this market work quietly by necessity — navigating regulatory complexity, managing exposure, and choosing very carefully who they sit down with.

Winna Club is built with that reality in mind.

There are no public guest lists, no press, no social media, and no photography without explicit member consent. 

Venue details are shared privately, close to the events. Every member has been personally vetted. NDAs are standard across all gatherings.

This isn’t legal boilerplate. It’s the reason the right people are willing to be in the room at al

HOW TO JOIN

This is not open to the public. If you’ve attended a HOT100 event or a TOP20 dinner with Winna Media, you’re eligible to apply.

If you’ve received a direct invitation, use the link in your email. Otherwise, apply below — we review every application personally and respond within five working days.

Founding places are limited to 50 only.

“Collect real business deals, not just business cards.”

Name

Michael Charlton

Michael Charlton, Independent  

Mike Charlton is a British business leader with more than 30 years’ experience building betting, gaming and lottery businesses across Asia-Pacific — from founding Ladbrokes’ first Asia office to leading Entain’s Asia-Pacific growth strategy for over a decade.

Across his career, Mike has taken products from concept to multi-million-dollar revenue and built government relationships at ministerial level in some of the region’s most complex regulatory markets — including projects spanning China, Vietnam, India, France, Russia, the Philippines, Japan and the USA. He served concurrently as Director across four Entain Group subsidiaries, combining commercial delivery with governance oversight throughout a career spent navigating the fast-changing world of Asian gaming regulation.

Since stepping down from Entain in 2025, Mike has relocated to Cambodia and now works as an independent strategic advisor, helping emerging technology and regulated-market businesses navigate commercial strategy, market entry and growth across the region.

A fluent traveller of the region’s boardrooms as much as its back-alleys, Mike holds Chinese language qualifications, a China Permanent Resident’s Card, and driving licences across three countries — proof that he doesn’t just talk about market entry, he lives it. Away from the desk, he’s a keen golfer (and former Chairman of the Beijing Golfers Club) and a long-distance trekker, always chasing the next challenging route, on the course or off it.

Mike brings three decades of frontline experience building betting and gaming businesses in some of the world’s toughest, most rewarding markets — insight shaped as much by boardrooms as by the ground-level realities of doing business across Asia.

Luís Mesquita de Melo

Luís Mesquita de Melo, Partner, J.A. Pinto Ribeiro & Associados     

Luis has a wealth of over 23 years of experience during which he assumed a broad range of legal roles, extending from teaching law to advisory positions at Governments highest level, senior corporate executive positions and private practice. He was Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Joint Company Secretary for Sands China Ltd.  with a leading role in the development of the Las Vegas Sands Corp Group business opening the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel and the Four Seasons Macau, successfully listing Sands China Ltd in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and obtaining financing for the Group’s business in Macau in excess of USD$ 5 billion. He was a Government Lawyer for Macau Legislative Modernization Commission, legal Advisor to the President of the Macau Legislative Assembly and for the Minister of Economy of Portugal. As senior Executive with Sands China, for over five years, he developed an unique set of skills in all matters related to Gaming & Hospitality, Corporate, Banking & Finance and Listing Rules.

He was a Partner of MdME, a Macau based law firm, where he developed the firm’s Gaming & Hospitality practice providing services and advising gaming operators, gaming promoters, gaming equipment manufacturers at all levels of the gaming industry market in Macau and regionally in other jurisdictions.

He was Chief Legal Counsel for NagaCorp (HKEx 3918).

NagaCorp Ltd. is the largest hotel, gaming and leisure operator in Cambodia, and the Company has been listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Stock Exchange”​) since 2006. In fact, NagaCorp became the first company with operations in Cambodia to become a public listed entity, as well as the first gaming-related company traded on the Stock Exchange. Its flagship, NagaWorld, is Phnom Penh’s only integrated hotel-casino entertainment complex, under a 70-year casino licence that will run till 2065, as well as a 41-year monopoly within a 200km radius of Phnom Penh that expires in 2035.

Chief Legal Officer for Asian Coast Development Ltd.

Asian Coast Development (Canada) Ltd. (ACDL) is an international development company specializing in integrated resort destinations. ACDL, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Ho Tram Project Company Ltd, is the developer of the Ho Tram Strip, a group of integrated resorts to be located on more than 400 acres of land and more than two kilometers of pristine beach in Ho Tram, and approved in an Investment Certificate issued by the Government of Vietnam.

The Ho Tram Strip will ultimately comprise:

The Grand – Ho Tram Strip, our 1,100 room integrated resort

The Bluffs, our Greg Norman designed Championship golf course                 

General Counsel for Hoiana South Development Ltd. (“HASD”)

Hoiana Resort & Golf is Vietnam’s premier US $4 billion, 985-hectare luxury beach integrated resort standing as one of the largest integrated destination casinos in Southeast Asia. Operating under a foreigner-only gaming framework, the property features a major gaming floor with 140 tables, nearly 300 electronic machines [asgam], and an ultra-exclusive high-roller VIP Sky Casino. Its operational Phase 1 boasts over 1,200 luxury hotel keys [asgam], an award-winning Robert Trent Jones Jr. links golf course, and more than 20 dining venues along a 4-kilometer beachfront. Backed by international investors.

Awards and Recognitions

  • Ranked as leading Macau lawyer by Chambers and Partners Asia 2013 and 2014

Chambers and Partners Asia 2014, General Business Law (Band 2): Luis Mesquita de Melo is widely recognised as “a true gaming specialist.” He brings to his work the especially notable advantage of having been an executive with a major gaming operator, giving him valuable insights into that business and the associated financial, regulatory and hospitality spheres.

Chambers and Partners, Asia-Pacific Region, Gaming & Gambling 2014 (Band 1): Luis Mesquita de Melo is considered one of the best gaming lawyers in Macau. Peers say: “He’s very strong in this area,” and praise his experience gained as a result of being former in-house counsel at Sands China. He has recently been advising clients outside of Macau, including those in Vietnam.

Chambers and Partners, Gaming & Gambling Global-wide (Band 3): Macau-based Luis Mesquita de Melo of MdME is well known for his gaming work and is described by peers as “an excellent lawyer.” He has over two decades of experience and has previously worked as general counsel for a gaming operator in Macau, working on its IPO and establishment of a resort in Macau.

  • Ranked as Tier 1 Macau lawyer by IFLR
  • Ranked by Asia Leading Lawyers 

Other Activities

  • General Member of International Masters of Gaming Law
  • Frequent Speaker in Gaming and Hospitality conferences is Macau, Philippines, Singapore, London and Las Vegas.
  • Speaker at presentations and seminars organized by the France Macau Business Association, American Chambers of Commerce and several international law firms.
  • Frequent collaborator with specialized legal publications such as Asia Legal Business, Acquisition International, World Gaming Magazine, European Gaming Lawyer, World Online Gambling Law Report.
  • Author of the Macau chapter in Gaming Law, 2nd Edition, European Lawyer Reference Series.

Katrina Nepomuceno

Katrina Nepomuceno, Special Counsel, Gruba Law

Katrina de Lima Nepomuceno is Special Counsel at Gruba Law and has over two decades of experience in the Philippine gaming industry. She has worked extensively with key government institutions and regulators, including the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), and the Philippine Congress. Combining deep regulatory experience with expertise in corporate strategy and high-stakes M&A transactions, she offers practical insights into the legal, regulatory, and commercial considerations essential to succeeding in the Philippine gaming market.

Atty. Nepomuceno is a seasoned legal professional with over 25 years of experience in corporate law and regulatory compliance, and is a member of the Philippine Bar. She is widely recognised as one of the few legal practitioners in Southeast Asia with deep specialisation in gaming law. covering both land-based and internet gaming operations.

She previously served as Vice President for Legal, Corporate Secretary, and Compliance Officer of Leisure and Resorts World Corporation (now DigiPlus Interactive Corp.), a publicly listed gaming and leisure conglomerate in the Philippines. She also served as President of its subsidiary. AB Leisure Global. Inc. In these roles. she led corporate legal strategy. advised on regulatory compliance. and oversaw high-stakes negotiations involving mergers. acquisitions. and joint ventures. Her work regularly interfaced with key government regulators such as PAGCOR. CEZA, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), DENR, DAR, and the Philippine Reclamation Authority, as well as the Philippine Congress.

Atty. Nepomuceno was instrumental in crafting internet gaming policies for the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and served for nearly two (2) decades as legal counsel to First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation, a pioneer in Philippine online gaming licensing. Her contribution to the evolution of gaming regulation in the region has been recognised through speaking engagements at international gaming conferences in Macau. Singapore. the United States, and Europe.

In addition to her work in the gaming sector. Atty. Nepomuceno provides strategic legal counsel to local governments and has led key development projects. She advised the City of Bacolod on the Php2.1Billion Bacolod Super City Project, a major public-private partnership. She currently advises on the city’s flagship housing initiative, the Yuhum Housing Project, under the national 4PH program. Her government relations practice includes extensive experience in legislative engagement and multi-agency coordination.

David Carruthers

David Carruthers, Principal & CEO, David Carruthers Consulting 

David Carruthers: A Driven Leader, Accomplished Entrepreneur, and Transformative Business Consultant.

David Carruthers is a seasoned executive with an exceptional track record of success as a CEO, entrepreneur, and business consultant. His unwavering commitment to excellence, coupled with his dynamic leadership style and proven ability to navigate complex challenges, has propelled him to the forefront of the business world.

A champion of innovation and transformation, a master of business strategy, he navigates global challenges with confidence, has a proven track record of accomplishment, a true visionary leader with a passion for excellence.

David’s boundless energy, proven ability to succeed, self-discipline, and infectious sense of humour set him apart. His unwavering commitment to excellence and his ability to inspire and motivate teams have earned him the respect and admiration of his peers.