India may be the next big thing in Asian gaming, and one of the region’s most nimble casino operators is offering investors a piece of the action. Silver Heritage Group began trading on Australia’s stock exchange last month as it takes aim on the Indian gaming market from casinos across the border in neighboring Nepal. The A$25 million ($19 million) initial public offering under ASX ticker symbol SVH valued the company at A$80 million.

Border casinos located in Cambodia and Laos, markets where Silver Heritage is active, serve players from Thailand and Vietnam with no casinos available at home. Macau, on mainland China’s doorstep, can be seen as the mother of all border casino areas. So the border casino concept has been proven to work across Asia, as has Silver Heritage’s approach to the regional gaming business.

Founded in 2003, Silver Heritage has built street cred in markets including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, along with previous operations in the Philippines and Macau. Silver Heritage began as a provider of electronic gaming machines (EGMs), which company founders Mike Bolsover and Tim Shepherd tab as good way to gain market know-how and identify opportunities that slip under other international operators’ radar.

“We are a group that has always developed projects over time and only where we see significant competitive advantage,” Bolsover, Silver Heritage’s CEO, says. “We focus on mid-size opportunities and improving operating performance to international best practice standards. This strategy has allowed us to build significant regional expertise and local knowledge while growing the business and generating attractive returns on capital.”

In 2010, that approach led to Bac Ninh in northern Vietnam’s industrial heartland, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Hanoi. Silver Heritage entered into a services contract to help manage casino hotel Phoenix International Club. Early last year, in a former government hospitality facility, Phoenix was reborn as a boutique resort with 36 rooms and suites, a day spa and unique rooftop golf practice range. The new 1,500 square meter (16,020 square foot) casino has 12 tables and 72 EGMs, with up to 30 tables and 100 EGMs allowed under its license. The resort is 60 kilometers closer to Hanoi than any other casino, giving it an advantage with the capital’s expatriates – Vietnam’s casinos and slot parlors are open only to foreign passport holders. Phoenix International also draws foreign managers of manufacturing plants around Bac Ninh run by the likes of Samsung.

Silver Heritage entered Nepal, another foreigner-only casino market, in 2012 as an EGM supplier to casino hotels in the capital, Kathmandu. For a year, it ran a so-called “mini-casino” with three tables and 20 EGMs near the Indian border. After Nepal revamped its gaming laws, Silver Heritage won its own gaming license and last year opened The Millionaire’s Club & Casino in a Kathmandu five-star hotel with 22 tables and 36 EGMs. Its more than 15,000 loyalty card holders include at least 10,000 Indians and 3,000 Chinese, underscoring that, in addition to its value as a gaming facility, The Millionaire’s Club serves as a proving ground for Silver Heritage’s further casino ambitions focused on India. Earlier this year, Global Market Advisors pegged India’s gaming market potential at $10 billion.

“Management believes that India represents one of the largest untapped and materially underserved gaming markets in the world,” Silver Heritage writes in its prospectus, noting that only two Indian state currently allow casino gambling, each with constraints. “The Group considers that a cost-effective way to provide a compelling new proposition that is easily accessible by Indian gaming customers is by building substantial casino resort facilities on the border of India within Nepal.”

Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa is due open early next year as the first purpose-built casino resort in Nepal – in fact, in all of South Asia, according to Silver Heritage – located just over the border from India, with 100 five-star rooms, two villas, a gym, spa, swimming pool, restaurants, plus meeting and banquet facilities suitable for weddings. Tiger Palace Bhairahawa’s target market is 430 million Indians living within a six hour drive of the border in states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Future plans for the resort include 300 additional four- and five-star hotel rooms, and Silver Heritage has a location for a second border resort in its sights.

If you believe in India’s gaming potential, Silver Heritage shares are a way to bet on it.