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5/31/2007: Singapore
Singapore is betting on its casinos and tourist expansion to bring money to the country.
Administrator4/16/2007: Japan
As Japan looks at changing strict gambling laws, the southern island region of Okinawa and Tokyo are being looked at by gambling developers wanting to establish super casinos to compete with Singapore and Macau.
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are already drawing up proposals to allow a handful of huge Vegas-style casinos, which could open their doors within a few years.
Almost half of the lower house of parliament — including some opposition lawmakers — supports the general idea of legalising casinos, said Toru Mihara, adviser to the LDP’s casino study group.
“If we can create legal structures within one or two years to come, maybe in 2012 casinos in Japan will start to operate,” he told AFP in an interview.
The major US casino operators are already regular visitors to Japan, networking and lobbying behind the scenes to try to secure a lucrative contract in the world’s second-largest economy, Mihara said.
“They are totally keen on this potential big market,” he added.
But local entertainment companies are also expected to be involved as the government will be reluctant to hand over to foreign operators alone what some experts say is almost a licence to print money.
So US giants such as Las Vegas Sands and Harrah’s Entertainment could team up with Japanese companies such as Sega Sammy, Konami or Aruze to build huge entertainment complexes including casinos, analysts said.
Although illegal backroom casinos exist in Japan, the only gambling officially open to the country’s population of 128 million is on horse, speedboat and bicycle racing and lotteries.
But anyone in doubt of Japan’s love of a flutter need look no further than the nation’s multi-billion dollar pachinko industry, which attracts some 17 million punters, from salarymen to pensioners and even young women.
Pachinko, a Japanese version of pinball played in thousands of noisy parlours across the country, is not officially defined as gambling, because prizes have to be exchanged outside the premises for cash.
12/19/2006: Macau
Macau, a Portuguese colony in Southern China will probably surpass Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world in 2007. While US gambling interests are investing the economy has risen 15%. So has poverty as the 1/2 million residents struggle with housing, outside workers and jobs.
But as the former Portuguese enclave opens up to the world, some residents say their home is changing too fast.
Traffic gridlock, soaring property prices and the influx of migrant workers are putting pressure on Macau’s laidback lifestyle.
Sociologist Penny Chan of the Macau Social Research Society says not all residents are benefiting from the economic boom.
‘Still some people cannot get a very good job and also they cannot enjoy a high salary. It seems that a small group of people can get rich because of the opening of the casinos,’ she said.
She explains that some residents complain that high paying jobs are going to foreigners and a growing number of students are dropping out of college to work in casinos - undermining the quality of Macau’s labor pool.
Macau lawmaker, Ng Kuok Cheong, says high rents are already leaving some people homeless.
‘Some people - especially the aged people - they have no income,’ he said. ‘They cannot afford the rent, the housing rent. They are forced to sleep on the street.’
The government says it will use gambling revenues to improve public services and infrastructure - such as a planned light railway and free education.
Lawmaker Ng says some residents fear that Macau is becoming too dependent on Chinese tourists and the casinos they frequent.
He said, ‘After this period what will happen? Maybe mainland China will have an economic change. … But the rich people of mainland China they will discover the world.’
‘They will find that we cannot go again and again to Hong Kong and Macau, we can go to more and more places, enjoy more and more,’ he added.
Analysts predict the Macau gambling economy will surpass Las Vegas by about 7 billion dollars. The area came under Chinese rule again in 1999. Some of the major US investors:
The Las Vegas Sands Corporation built the world’s largest casino in 2004. Next year, it will open The Venetian Macau - a replica of its flagship property in the United States.
The Venetian boasts a 3,000-suite hotel and 100,000 square meters of gambling, shopping, convention and hotel space.
Mark Brown, president of Sands Macau, says The Venetian will create a new market here - attracting the gamers but also shoppers, tourists and business executives.
He said, ‘You’re going to have all the elements of Las Vegas. Shows, unbelievable entertainers will be coming, restaurants, shopping… I think a cluster of shops that’s nowhere in the entire world.’
‘When you have all that in a building, in buildings, plus in an area that’s true destination gaming, it will far surpass Las Vegas,’ he continued.
The Sands’ competitors are also spending big money. The billion-dollar high-end Wynn casino resort opened in September. MGM Mirage is building its own billion-dollar complex to open in 2008.
9/10/2006: Japanese businessman bailed out by wife and mistress
56 Yoshio Yamaki got bailed out in a New York court by his wife and his mistress this week.
Yamaki was released on 350 thousand dollars bond and was ordered to stay away from casinos.
He is charged with swindling Sigma Corporation out of nearly 7 million dollars between 1998 and 2005.
He gambled it away at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Connecticut and the Bahamas.
6/8/2006: Philippines
Catholic and Protestant church leaders in the northern province of Bataan have issued a joint statement about gambling.
In a statement titled “Magbantay, Manindigan, Lumaban (be vigilant, take a stand, fight),” the religious leaders advised members of their Churches: “Don’t gamble, don’t ask money or favors from provincial government leaders, don’t be afraid to tell your Church and government leaders where the gambling joints in your communities are.”
The statement, written in Filipino, was released June 5 after religious leaders met that morning at Bahay Pari (priest’s house) in the bishops’ residential compound in Balanga, Bataan, 100 kilometers northwest of Manila.
Jueteng and other illegal numbers games have proliferated along with legalised gambling such as lotto and casino games and gambling licences are being snapped up by the state.
In their statement, the religious leaders wrote that gambling destroys the person and society because it breeds laziness and dependence on luck rather than hard work for livelihood. They also pointed out that it is a “sin” to operate a gambling facility and to earn one’s living through gambling.
The Church personnel explained why it is not good for people to ask money or favors from elected politicians. They said government officials have minimal salaries, so asking money from them encourages them to seek funds, sometimes in illegal ways such as by giving protection to gambling lords and operators.
“Let us help our government officials remain honest and clean” and not “tempt them to commit sins,” the religious leaders appealed. They also asked their Church members to be vigilant. “Do not play deaf and blind; observe, and keep watch,” they said, urging people to report any form of gambling in their communities to their pastor, parish priest, mayor or local officials.
1/22/2006: Next stop - Taiwan
Every year hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese nationals travel to Australia, Macau and the US in order to have a flutter and the amount of revenue casinos earn from these gamblers is phenomenal.Fifteen-percent of the US$230 million taken by the Sands Casino in Macau in its opening year came from Taiwanese gamblers and 20 percent of the US$100million taken on the Baccarat tables of Los Vegas’ MGM Grand annually comes from Taiwanese nationals.
Regardless of whether future casinos attract overseas gamers from the 350 million people who live 1.5 hours flying time from Penghu, or simply generates a locally based gambling industry, the stakes are huge.
While it is still a hypothetical situation, industry insiders estimate that a US$300 million casino could break even in a mere in six months.
“Hong Kong has a population of 6 million and of these, those who travel to Macau spend US$1 billion a year in casinos,” said Larry Woolf, one-time CEO of the MGM Grand and chairman of the Los Vegas-based gaming development agency, The Navegante Group. “Taiwan has a population of 22 million people. Most of them have a decent disposable income so it doesn’t take a lot of math to work out that [Taiwan] is a huge market.”
The numbers speak for themselves and neighboring countries are also aware of them. Singapore has decided to legalize gambling and other Asian nations, including Japan and Thailand, are set to follow in the not so distant future. If Taiwan doesn’t act soon then it could blow its chance of grabbing a piece of the lucrative gaming market.
According to news reports two weeks ago, when Singapore finalized its bidding process for the construction of a casino in preparation for the March 31 deadline, only four companies of the original 14 wanted to continue with their bids, citing problems with the destination and stringent guidelines as reasons behind their sudden lack of interest.
1/22/2006: Philippines
The Philippine Department of Justice has ruled that cock fighting (sabong) is a form of gambling and will be subject to municipal regulations and franchising.
12/26/2005: Korea gambling suicides
Gangwon Land, the only legal casino in Korea has seen it’s seventh suicide since opening the end of the year 2000.
An unnamed woman jumped to her death, she had gambled at the casino 189 days in a year.
The suicides raise the problem of addiction to gambling and prompt calls for tougher regulations on the number of times individuals may visit the casino. At present, entry is allowed for up to 20 days a month for ordinary visitors and up to 15 days a month for “VIP” guests in the casino, but a further lowering of the ceiling is being suggested, although its effect is uncertain.
Gangwon Land was licensed to offer an alternative domestic facility for Koreans who go to Macau or Southeast Asian countries to gamble while providing jobs for local people and increasing tax revenues for the provincial administration. But it soon produced a large number of addicts who squander money and ruin their lives on the roulette, baccarat and black jack tables. A provincial police commissioner was recently fired after visiting the casino more than 100 kilometers away from his place of duty almost every other day.
Besides this private facility in Gangwon Province, the horse racing park in Gwacheon and the bicycle racing stadium in the Olympic Park, which are both semi-official establishments, both have rapidly increasing numbers of customers who mostly go to the places to gamble rather than for healthy amusement. Numerous jobless people and small-time money lenders swarm to these places where more curses than cheers are heard directed at jockeys making the general atmosphere at such venues far from sporting.
Gangwon Land, with an average of 5,000 daily visitors, is most crowded during the first 20 days of each month. This means gambling addicts come to the place everyday up to the 20-day limit. As they well know the consequences of addiction to gambling, government authorities need to take effective measures to stop casino, horse and bicycle racing facilities from further destroying the lives of the people who go to them.
12/26/2005: Indonesia’s gambling crackdown
Since taking up the post of National Police chief in July, General Sutanto ordered police chiefs to crack down on illegal gambling or face the risk of losing their jobs and face criminal charges.
Jakarka’s police chief announced he would have them closed in a week. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, with underground gambling wide-spread.
Gambling centers did indeed appear to be closed, but people familiar with gambling in the capital said it was business as usual even at the height of the crackdown.
“We know very well how the police behave. They are serious only at the beginning of a campaign. They staged massive crackdowns on gambling just to please the public in the first few months.
“We had stop just for a while and then resumed operations soon after. Gambling is one of the police’s sources of income, you know,” Yohannes, who owns several gambling dens in the capital, told The Jakarta Post recently.
City police arrested hundreds of suspected gamblers immediately after the campaign was announced, but the Jakarta Prosecutor’s Office revealed in November that it had not received one single case file on gambling from either the Jakarta Police nor the National Police Headquarters.
The public is cynical about the police’s seriousness in fighting gambling as no big gambling den owners have been arrested.
High-ranking police officers are thought to accept monthly payments from gambling lords, while low-ranking officers earn additional income from street gambling, including togel (illegal lotteries).
12/3/2005: China and illegal gambling
According to this Guardian report, the Chinese government has arrested 1.2 million people the past several months, in attempts to curb illegal gambling. The report goes on to say over 163 thousand cases were investigated. Corruption is a big issue as China moves toward a free market system.
More than 8,740 members of the ruling Communist party were punished for gambling between January and October, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
An official at the Communist party’s discipline inspection commission was quoted by Xinhua as saying: “Cross-border gambling, especially [on the part of] government officials, could directly undermine [...] national security and social stability and tarnish the party’s image.”He said 30 gambling agencies linked to overseas casinos and 19 underground banks were closed this year in an effort to deter cross-border gambling.
Among the party workers prosecuted was Cai Haowen, a former transport manager in Yanbian, a city in north-east China’s Jilin province, which borders North Korea. Haowen was sentenced to 17 years in prison in May for embezzling and gambling £220,000 of public funds.
Macau is a former Portuguese colony, which was handed back to China in 1999. On the face of it, the territory, long regarded as the poor cousin of nearby Hong Kong and now back under Beijing’s authoritarian rule, seems an unlikely place for a growth in casinos.
But experts say the mix of authoritarianism and liberal capitalist economics has created the ideal environment for a gambling boom.
In recent years, as more and more American-style casinos and hotels have been built, Macau has been vying for the title of entertainment capital of Asia and trying to shed its disreputable image. It is known as a hive of organised crime and prostitution.
Macua already generates 90% of its income from gambling and is profiting from the opening of the gaming industry to foreign investors and a relaxation of travel restrictions on the Chinese mainland.
The main lure for investors is the market of a billion potential Chinese gamblers, who have a reputation for betting intensively.
In the past two years, 14 mainland Chinese provinces have loosened travel restrictions, opening the door to Macau for hundreds of millions of people. Similar liberalisation planned for a further 16 provinces will expand the territory’s potential market by half a billion people.
But Macau’s sleazy reputation remains and has not been helped by rumours of money laundering in the territory and reports of mainland officials squandering public money on baccarat, blackjack and roulette.
