MACAU BUSINESS By Tony Lai By Paolo A. Azevedo


Waiting for the digital yuan


Jeju will be as big as Singapore in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue, predicts Lawrence Teo. The Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Dream Tower, the tallest Integrated Resort under construction on the Korean destination island, explains to Macau Business why Lotte Tour decided to enter the casino business and create a landmark. All bets are on making the casino resort the crown of the tourism jewel the company has been dominating for four decades


Jeju – the new Singapore


U in Macau. Whether it will be associated with the next contest or not


(as is more likely), the introduction of the digital RMB promises to have serious implications for the future of local gaming – and that will end up being directly related to the conditions of the international public tender. “Enforcing use of the cryptocurrency could devastate


casinos. It would allow the government to more closely trace the money movements of high-rolling gamblers, which could cause VIPs to abandon Macao for other countries,” Rich Duprey, one of The Motley Fool’s most well-known chroniclers, wrote last April. Opinions are divided. “We view it as a positive,” said Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Rob Goldstein. “We would love to have more cross-border currency. It’s another form of currency. And we shouldn’t only be concerned – our business is not built on money laundering or on a necessary junket profile. “Some people are concerned; we’re not. We think it’s an additional form of liquidity into the market,” he told analysts during the last earnings call. “We’re looking to focus on the


M 18 OCTOBER 2017 18 AUGUST 2021


nexpectedly, a theme emerged in the context of the new public tender, even though it’s not clear, at this point, what its connection to the terms of the future re-tendering might be: the likely addition of China’s digital RMB as legal tender


Duprey differs, “Although casino executives say they


support its adoption, because Beijing won’t allow gamblers to come back to Macau if they can’t get a digital currency imposed, it would also harm the mass market to whom they’ve been catering.” In Macau, too, there are those who fear what might come


next: Zhou Jinquan, associate professor at the Center for Gaming and Tourism Studies at Macau Polytechnic Institute, told Bloomberg last December: “It’ll breach customer privacy and restrict people’s betting amount to the potential cap on conversion to foreign currencies imposed on the digital yuan.”


acau Business – From Lotte World, a major recreational complex [with the world’s largest indoor theme park, in Seoul] to an integrated resort with casino in Jeju. A different beast. A


natural evolution? Lawrence Teo – Business is the same. But building


a landmark. M. B. – The group [Lotte] has created other landmarks in different types of business. Why would this be different? L. T. – Yes, Lotte Group has already created


downtown Seoul and Lotte Super Tower. We’re trying


The headline of this Bloomberg piece left no room for doubt: “China’s Digital Currency Could Reshape Macau’s Gambling Industry.” In this same news report by Bloomberg, it was announced that the local government has discussed the terms of introducing the digital yuan with casino operators. And even if almost immediately the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau countered, “the use of digitised renminbi in casinos is a false report,” it seems certain something is going on, not least because the Macau Monetary Authority revealed that a preliminary review of the Macau Currency Issuing System had already started, developing the necessary legislative work with the aim of the law to include the use of digital currency. Last April the Chief Executive gave more details at the Legislative Assembly: the development of digital currency has become a global trend, and that’s why the authorities are studying possible changes to local financial regulations that could allow for the use of the digital RMB currently being trialled in China. Ho also underlined that local authorities are in communication with the People’s Bank of China to study the feasibility of issuing digital currencies in due course. “We started hearing chatter about the digital RMB grow louder and louder from the middle of last year, with Macau the only place where there was a void. It didn’t make a lot of sense, and it either meant [local authorities] were studying


to do the Dream Tower in Jeju. Lotte here is being just a family company; we’re a different company [Lotte Tour]. It’s not going to be [just] the tallest and the largest building in Jeju, that’s just the hardware. We say that a landmark should be the most visited destination, where tourists will go to eat, shop and maybe [visit] our observation deck. A must-visit point destination. Because of the hardware, and also the software.


M. B. – What are the main goals that you definitely


want to achieve with this Integrated Resort (IR)? L. T. – Number one EBIDTA on IR in Korea. There’s


Since the RMB became legal tender in Macau the path was opened to use of the digital RMB as well. As the headline of a Bloomberg article states: “China’s Digital Currency Could Reshape Macau’s Gambling Industry.”


mass customer, premium mass; that’s our bread and butter. That’s who we are and where we want to go in the future, and we can build a business that keeps growing on the back of that.”


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