The former Portuguese enclave of Macau awarded three gaming licenses yesterday, ending a 40-year monopoly held by casino tycoon Stanley Ho in hopes of luring Las Vegas glitz and wealth to revive its languishing economy.
Macau Gambling Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Ho's Macau Tourism and Amusement Co, which operates 11 casinos, was awarded a license for the sake of maintaining the "stability of the gambling industry," said Francis Tam, secretary for economy and finance.
The other two licenses went to Las Vegas casino giant Wynn Resorts (Macau) Ltd and to Galaxy Casino Co Ltd, a venture controlled by Venetian, which is owned by Las Vegas Sands Inc.
Macau hopes the Las Vegas showmen will give the city a makeover, casting off its deadbeat image and adding world-class entertainment, sports and tourist attractions.
"The combination of these three companies will be beneficial to the development of Macau's gaming and tourism industry," Tam said.
"We want gaming and tourism together to become the leading industry in Macau, boosting the economy as a whole," he added.
Twenty-one companies, including Las Vegas gambling empire MGM Mirage, Britain's Aspinall's Club Ltd and Malaysian tourism, plantation and energy giant Gen-ting International PLC Group, had bid for the licenses.
Las Vegas casinos say they are banking on the increasingly affluent 1.3 billion mainland Chinese to fuel a gaming boom in Macau.
Tam said the licenses were awarded on a provisional basis.
The three runners-up were: MP Entertainment Co Ltd, which represented Park Place Entertainment Corp and Mandalay Resort Group, MGM Mirage Macau and Macau Star Ltd.
Gambling is banned in Hong Kong and China, which took over Macau in 1999 after more than four centuries of Portuguese rule but allows a high degree of autonomy.
Macau derives more than half its economic activity from the casinos run by Ho.
Since the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, its economy has been in decline.
While Ho's casinos do exude opulence, with marble floors and sparkling chandeliers, gambling patrons crowd grimly around tables in crowded, rundown rooms. Prostitutes openly prowl the corridors.
Staff at Ho's office said the 80-year-old gambling magnate, who spends most of his time in Hong Kong, would be busy with meetings and was not planning to be in Macau yesterday.
Asked about the loss of his monopoly in an interview last year, Ho, whose assets have been valued at US$1.8 billion by Forbes magazine, expressed confidence.
"We are not worried. We are the biggest company in Macau and the richest company," Ho said.
Competition likely won't come right away.
Newcomers will need several years to build their casinos, and the government must find a way to finance the round-the-clock dredging Ho's company has been providing as a condition of the gambling concession
Ho, born into a wealthy Eurasian family that lost its fortune earlier this century, fled penniless from Hong Kong to Macau during World War II and acquired the gambling monopoly in 1962. At the time, Macau was a dying fishing port deluged with refugees from China.
Ho employs about 15,000 people, a fifth of the work force, and owns most of the hotel rooms and high-speed ferries that shuttle visitors from Hong Kong and other Chinese cities.
Ho has been diversifying his business for years, with investments in Portugal, Australia, Vietnam and North Korea as well as a cyber-gaming venture.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS