Whatever Pansy Ho thinks about New Jersey state attorneys and their opinion of her father, she’s keeping to herself.
When MGM MIRAGE’s joint venturess put in an appearance at G2E Asia, she made it clear that her US partner would be doing the talking regarding the “unsuitability” claim made against her by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
The ruckus appears to be mainly about past allegations of criminal activity in VIP rooms at her father Dr Stanley Ho’s casinos rather than about Ms Ho herself.
An MGM MIRAGE executive was a little more forthcoming.
“We disagree with their recommendation,” said Lloyd Nathan, MGM MIRAGE’s President for Global Gaming Development, after a conference session at G2E Asia.
“Pansy Ho has been and is a great partner in Macau.”
A US-based investor in the Macau gaming market was less diplomatic.
He told Asian Gaming Intelligence: “New Jersey’s stance is too bizarre for even fiction.
“New Jersey has known since 2003 that Pansy is MGM’s partner in Macau. They gave no objection at that time. They gave no objection when MGM started construction. They gave no objection when the casino opened. Now, six years later, New Jersey has concluded that Pansy is unsuitable.”
Warming to his theme, the investor continued: “As I see it, there are three possible explanations. One is that the New Jersey officials are completely incompetent. A second is that New Jersey had issues all along, but when it appeared that MGM would invest billions in Atlantic City [via a new casino project], they were silent.
“Now that MGM cannot pump more money into the economy, the objections surface. The third possibility is that new information has surfaced. But what could that be? And if New Jersey has issues, what do they know that Mississippi, Michigan (and most of all) Nevada do not know? Or is it a matter of one seeing the glass as half empty and the others seeing it as half full?”
Time will surely tell.
