Inside Asian Gaming

21 the Khmer Rouge feared could organize to challenge their authority. Most of the country’s educated people were targeted. Up to 1.5 million more died of the famine that ensued from the Khmer Rouge’s poli- cies. It is interesting to note that none of the gamblers Inside Asian Gaming spoke to at NagaWorld had made the 45 minute trip to the Killing Fields, or had seen the Geno- cide Museum (a secondary school Pol Pot had converted to a torture camp) right in the heart of town. Cambodia has shaken off its sad past with conviction, and is now a magnet for foreign investment and tourists. A recent report in The Economist highlighted the country’s booming tourism industry: “In 1993, as United Nations-sponsored elec- tions signaled the end of the civil war that followed the Khmer Rouge regime’s col- lapse, Cambodia got only 154,000 foreign visitors. Last year there were 1.7m, up 20% on the previous year, and they spent some US$1.4 billion, or around twice the gov- ernment’s entire tax revenues. Everything from construction to financial services is booming too. Last year’s overall economic growth was far better than expected, at 10.5%. Cambodia is slowly but, it seems, surely dragging itself up from a very low base. And things could get brighter still: substantial oil and gas reserves have re- cently been found off Cambodia’s coasts.” Similar package, much lower cost Sheldon Adelson is fond of pointing out that 3 billion people reside within a 5 hour flight of Macau, but the same is also true of Cambodia. Unlike Macau—as men- tioned by Octo Chang in the following ar- ticle,“Rolling, Rolling, Everywhere”—where casino operators face a steep 40% tax on gaming revenue (35% direct tax and 4-5% mandatory social and welfare contribu- tions), NagaCorp needs only pay a fixed license fee every month. That fee stood at US$142,383 in 2007, equivalent to about 5% of NagaWorld’s casino revenue. This al-