This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
46


Gaming


has been further delay in getting busi- ness visas to Macau, which were used by junkets earlier to enter Macau,” Morgan Stanley said in its note, written by analysts Praveen K. Choudhary and Calvin Ho. University of Macau gaming expert


Ricardo Siu says it is hard to see a direct relationship between Mr Wang’s visits to casinos and Beijing’s visa policy in the coming months or year. “As long as the market behaves well by itself (e.g. pays attention to improving its transparency over time, doesn’t repeat the problems as presented in 2008 etcetera), a surge in its gross gaming revenue is not necessarily a consideration for Beijing to tighten the


Last month, Wang Guangya visited the Grand Lisboa and Galaxy Macau hotel-casinos. He also had dinner at MGM Macau. He did not visit any of the casinos’ gaming fl oors


visa policy,” Mr Siu says. He thinks Mr Wang’s visits con-


 rm the importance of casino gaming to the local economy and that Beijing has learned to accept this. “I believe that, through Mr Wang’s


visit, the development of Macau’s casino resort-based economy and its continu- ous progress [toward becoming] a world tourism and leisure centre in the Pearl River Delta, are further con rmed and supported by the central government. In addition, it also showed that [the need for] casino gaming as a modern industry for the success of the Macau economy is an inevitable fact.”


In his right mind The head of Union Gaming Group’s Macau subsidiary, Grant Govertsen, says the importance of gaming to the economy “has always been of keen in- terest” to Beijing. “As the gaming industry in Macau


has grown signi cantly, with a cor- responding increase in


tax revenues,


Macau continues to be entirely self-sus- tained. This self-sustenance, I suspect, is quite important to China,” Mr Govert- sen says. “Further, I believe that Beijing


should be proud of what has been ac- complished in Macau, which quickly became the number one global gaming market.” Mr Govertsen considers it possi-


ble that Mr Wang’s visit is a sign that Beijing is not thinking about making it more dif cult for mainlanders to visit Macau in the short run. “Although cer- tain camps believe that the astronomical growth might result in some mechanism being employed to slow growth, I do not believe this will be the case,” he says. Gaming law expert Jorge Godinho


remarks that Mr Wang’s visits were “un- usual”. In his blog Mr Godinho says: “In


light of the highly meticulous, well planned, detailed and scripted manner of operation of Chinese diplomats and government of cials, no one in their right mind could consider this to be an accident.” Mr Godinho admits it is hard to say


exactly what signals Mr Wang intended to send. But he argues: “More broadly, the fact that Mr Wang actually visited some casinos, a rare or even remarkable step by itself, is clearly a sign of support to the Macau gaming industry.”


JULY 2011


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132