In this regular feature in IAG to celebrate 17 years covering the Asian gaming and leisure industry, we look back at our cover story from exactly 10 years ago, “The Asian Gaming 50”, to rediscover what was making the news in September 2012!
It seems appropriate, given that Inside Asian Gaming only recently announced City of Dreams Manila as venue for the 15th Asian Gaming Power 50 Gala Dinner, to look back at the 2012 Power 50 which was our cover story in September a decade ago.
Proving that some things are built to last, taking top spot in 2012 was the same man who continues to lead the way today, Galaxy Entertainment Group’s Vice Chairman Francis Lui. With the opening of Galaxy Macau having propelled GEG towards the top of Macau’s revenue pie, Lui’s words at the time appear quite prophetic as he told IAG, “If there is a person who knows what the Chinese customer will look like in the next five or 10 years, it is probably someone like me who has been there doing business in China, seeing them evolving.”
Lui pipped the late Sheldon Adelson for the No 1 spot in 2012, while some other familiar faces round out the top five with Genting’s Lim Kok Thay ranking third, Melco’s Lawrence Ho fourth and Steve Wynn in fifth.
Notably in the top 10, given events in the years since, were then-Crown Resorts supremo James Packer (8th) and Kazuo Okada (10th), while the top 17 people in the 2012 Asian Gaming Power 50 were either based out of Macau or worked for companies with operations in Macau.
It will be interesting to see how Macau fares in 2022 given three years of little to no revenue under COVID.
