Several gaming industry executives observing Taiwan’s long and winding road toward casino legalisation say one of the proposed locations—the outlying islands of Penghu—don’t have enough quality infrastructure to support one or more casino resorts.
Those people may be overlooking the fact that where there’s a will, there’s a way. Cotai had no infrastructure until a few years back; now look at it. In fact Cotai didn’t even exist until the Macau government embarked on its ambitious plan to rival Las Vegas in scale as a gaming destination. Cotai was literally dredged up out of the sea in what must have been one of southern China’s if not Asia’s biggest ever land reclamation projects.
Now Penghu County Government has invited companies to bid for a project to extend the runway of the existing military-designed Penghu International Airport.
At present the airport can handle nothing bigger than an Airbus A310 or an MD-90, but if the extension is built as proposed it will be able to accept Boeing 747 and 777s. Penghu International airport was recently approved for direct charter flights to 21 major destinations in Mainland China, as part of the landmark pact ending the 60-year ban on direct links between Taiwan and the People’s Republic.
In mid-July the Taiwan government is expected to issue via the Tourism Bureau its tender document for the building of gaming resorts on its so-called ‘remote islands’.
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