Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2009 22 Bally In Focus long time when it comes to the possibility of bringing in Mainland tourists to Taiwan for casino gaming. Relations between China and Taiwan have thawed considerably since President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in March last year in place of the pro-independence hard liner Chen Shui-bian. President Chen’s policy position appeared essentially to be to set his face against any overture Beijing was inclined to make—from a gift of giant pandas to bilateral talks on trade. The fact that President Ma is leader of the Kuomintang (KMT)—the Nationalist Party of China historically most opposed to the People’s Republic of China—appears paradoxically to give him more wiggle room than his predecessor when negotiating with Beijing. This is probably because as the heir to Chiang Kai-shek’s political legacy President Ma has less to prove to the public regarding his commitment to Taiwan as a going concern. President Ma has hit a few bumps in the road recently in his rapprochement with Beijing, but he has a thumpingparliamentary majority. The casino plan is unlikely therefore to be derailed by the threat of individual MPs or evenblocs ofMPs defying the government whip on the issue. legalise casinos,” says Simon Liu, Director of Business Development for Jumbo Technology, a leading Taiwanese supplier of gaming equipment to the domestic and international markets. What sort of casino industry will Taiwan create? It’s a long time since the heady days of the earlyNoughtieswhen senior American gaming bosses came courting the Taiwan government regarding possible integrated resorts. At that time—before the ending of Dr Ho’s Macau monopoly and before the Las Vegas operators had started their investment in Macau—Taiwan arguably had an exciting window of opportunity to create a world class and region-leading casino gaming sector. Whether in reality regional politics would have allowed Taiwan to market such an industry to Mainland Chinese visitors is a moot point. Only in July last year—for the first time since the end of China’s civil war in 1949—did Beijing agree to direct flights between the Mainland and what it regards as a renegade province. Cross-straits harmony The political mood music is certainly more encouraging then it has been for a A ccording to Simon Liu of Jumbo Technology, the Taiwan government has gone on record indicating it admires the way Singapore went about setting up a casino gaming market. That approval relates both to the limited number of licences issued by Singapore, and the way the Lion City initiated an internationally competitive tender process. “Taiwan wants to follow the tendering model of Singapore because they think this is very efficient and fair to all investors looking at involvement in Taiwan,” explains Mr Liu. Taiwan’s approach has some superficial parallels with Singapore—such as the fact that only two licences will be granted, and that Taiwan has said it wants to invite bids from internationally proven operators. The two markets are also likely to have a similar annual turnover. Singapore is reportedly working on the assumption of a US$2 billion market annually. Singapore Style Taiwan reportedly admires the Lion City’s approach to casino development