The gaming industry potentially has its very own version of car crash television next week when Dr Stanley Ho steps up to receive a G2E Asia Visionary Award at the CotaiExpo™ convention centre.
Forget Simon Cowell being rude to tone deaf ex prom queens from Arkansas or Ozzy Osbourne gibbering semi-scripted profanities in his ballroom-sized kitchen in Beverly Hills. All eyes at G2E Asia 2009 will be on Dr Ho as the American Gaming Association and Reed Exhibitions present him with an honour. The reason for the interest is because of the timing.
The presentation will come only days after state attorneys in New Jersey claimed Dr Ho’s daughter Pansy Ho was an “unsuitable” partner for MGM MIRAGE in Macau. And the reason for this alleged ‘unsuitability’? The historical and unproven allegation by US authorities that Dr Ho knows or has known in the past a few people more than happy to fill gamblers’ pockets with concrete dim sum and take them for a swim in the South China Sea if they don’t pay their debts on time.
Dr Ho being Dr Ho will either make light of the New Jersey situation with an ironic aside, or play it with a completely straight bat while on the G2E stage out of respect for his hosts. Asian Gaming Intelligence’s money is on the latter, although all bets are off if the media pack are able to get to him after the presentation.
If the organisers have any sense, they’ll probably ‘manage’ the event from a public relations perspective by politely but efficiently spiriting away Dr H. before the newshounds can get on his trail—rather in the way party political machines shield their candidates from awkward questions in the US Presidential elections.
On the other hand there’s an argument that when it comes to publicity, there’s no such thing as bad news. Despite the importance of the G2E Asia event to the industry, it’s easy to forget that to many outsiders it’s just another trade exhibition and conference. Dr Ho’s on stage appearance this year could change all that, and make G2E Asia a front page news event rather than something for the inside business pages and the specialist press.
On that basis perhaps next year at G2E Asia we can expect an appearance from Calvin Ayre, the founder of Bodog, in a special on-stage edition of Fear Factor.
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