TAIWAN –MACAU RIVALRY FOR GAMBLING
Taiwan is making a move into the gambling industry. Their economy is lagging, and the one thing that can help is casino gambling with it's betting revenue. The new President-elect, Ma Ying-Jeou is ready to unlock the doors to the gambling world. Ma Ying-Jeou has made his intentions very clear. When he is sworn into office on May 20th, a new age of gambling will begin in Taiwan. He has stated that he wants individual local county governments to have the right to issue gaming licenses.
The move will be an effort to help the struggling economy in the country. The hope is that if big time resort casinos are built, that gamblers from China will be lured away from Macau. Macau has become the gambling capitol of the world. They passed Las Vegas, and with people now not having to fly across the world to gamble in Vegas, Macau has become the hot spot.
Taiwan will eventually be competing for the large amounts of revenue dollars that Macau is currently enjoying. The archipelago of Penghu will be the main beneficiary of being able to offer legalized casino gambling. Although Ma will want to make the move, Parliament will still have to approve it. Once approved, local authorities would then have the power to license casino developers.
MACAU - Not all bets lead to happy endings, and if anyone should know that it is the authorities in Macau, where freshly minted revenue figures confirm that 2007 was another jackpot year as new casinos appeared like a rash of winner's gambling chips. Gross gaming winnings at the gambling tables climbed 46.6% last year to a record 83 billion patacas (US$10.4 billion), nearly triple 2003 levels. A quartet of grand openings helped fuel a boom that has steadily picked up pace since the former Portuguese enclave was returnedto Chinese sovereignty in December 1999. The newcomers represent only an early wave of some US$20 billion in investment that is flowing into Macau’s hospitality sector. Former casino monopolist Stanley Ho opened his new flagship Grand Lisboa casino just in time for the Lunar New Year Chinese holiday last February. Ho’s 40-year monopoly on gaming through his Socieda de de Jogos de Macau (SJM) ended in 2002, yet the octogenarian now probably makes more money than ever from his share of Macau’s greatly expanded pie.
Macau's ascendancy also is threatening Hong Kong's position as an entertainment hub, especially since the opening of the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao. In 2007, the Venetian staged a series of high-profile entertainment events such as sports exhibitions with English soccer team Manchester United (Manchester casinos are awesome to visit and as big as their football team), NBA teams the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers plus tennis champs Roger Federer and Pete Sampras as well as perfs by music superstars Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas. Hong Kong is beginning to feel the heat. Registered number of visitors for Macau in September was 2.27 million, over 145,000 more than Hong Kong. But Macau still has to pay some more dues before it can call itself a truly international destination: Only 9% of visitors were from outside the region during September.
But Macau investors are pouring in the money with such initiatives as an original production by Cirque du Soleil and a Celine Dion gig skedded for early '08, and more entertainment-themed casinos such as Macao Studio City, which is under construction."Most major entertainment events (were) planned with visitors in mind, even before the (recent) boom," says Gary Ieong, an events organizer in Hong Kong whose roots lie in Macau. "The locals are more interested in Canto pop acts than huge international stars."