Casinos Coming to Asia - RGT Online

When Portugal controlled Macau, a company owned by one of the richest men in the world, Stanley Ho, had a monopoly on casinos. It would not have been surprising if the new government had outlawed gambling; China still considers gambling one of the few sins worthy of the death penalty. Instead, three years after the turnover, the new rulers of Macau decided to issue more casino licenses and put them out to bid. Stanley Ho did win one, but so did Steve Wynn and a Hong Kong group that issued a sublicense to another American, Sheldon G. Adelson, owner of the Venetian in Las Vegas. In May, 2004, Adelson, aided by his on-site top executives, including VP and General Counsel Thomas Smock, opened the Sands, the first new casino in Macau in 40 years. I visited the Sands two weeks after it opened. It is a magnificent, western-style casino, which has been enormously successful by testing, and where necessary, disregarding accepted wisdom. For example, it was said that Asian gamblers would not play slot machines. The Sands installed a few video poker machines in a dark corner. The games have proven so popular that the casino has ordered hundreds more. How gambling will spread depends almost entirely upon the unique laws and politics of the region. Until recently, residents of mainland China could only visit Macau as part of a tour group. China now allows its residents to travel there independently, and the exit and entry point between Zhuhai and Macau has become one of the busiest border crossings in the world. A string of casinos is being built in Macau, intentionally designed to conjure up comparisons with the Las Vegas strip. Laws will first have to be changed. For example, the traditional Macau casino was nothing more than a room with table games. It made sense to keep out minors at the door. But hotel casinos have restaurants, shows and gamblers who bring their children. Tom Smock has told me that legislation is already pending to let minors enter the buildings. Steve Wynn forced another change in the law when he refused to begin construction of his massive hotel-casino project until the Macau government allowed casinos to issue credit to players. The PRC is committed to aiding the growth of the casinos in Macau and sports and race betting (and shopping) in Hong Kong. Construction is beginning on the world's second longest bridge, spanning 19 miles across the China Sea, to connect Macau, Hong Kong and Zhuhai. The government has even allowed an Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming to be set up at the University of Macau. Jason Zhicheng Gao, a noted professor and expert poker player from Canada, has been recruited as the organization's first director. China hopes to have the best of both worlds. It can get all the jobs, tax revenue and economic growth from legal gambling while keeping it somewhat isolated in its remoter regions of Hong Kong and Macau. But China cannot control what other countries do. By the time you read this, Singapore may also have voted to legalize casinos. Thailand, Taiwan, and even Japan, are debating the issue. Chinese players call slot machines "tigers." It will be interesting to see how governments will react when they realize that it is they and not the players who have caught a tiger by the tail. Read more here: Casinos Coming to Asia - RGT Online