The former Portuguese enclave of Macau awarded three gaming licenses yesterday, ending a 40-year monopoly held by casino tycoon Stanley Ho in hopes of luring Las Vegas glitz and wealth to revive its languishing economy.
Macau Gambling Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Ho's Macau Tourism and Amusement Co, which operates 11 casinos, was awarded a license for the sake of maintaining the "stability of the gambling industry," said Francis Tam, secretary for economy and finance.
The other two licenses went to Las Vegas casino giant Wynn Resorts (Macau) Ltd and to Galaxy Casino Co Ltd, a venture controlled by Venetian, which is owned by Las Vegas Sands Inc.
Macau hopes the Las Vegas showmen will give the city a makeover, casting off its deadbeat image and adding world-class entertainment, sports and tourist attractions.
"The combination of these three companies will be beneficial to the development of Macau's gaming and tourism industry," Tam said.
"We want gaming and tourism together to become the leading industry in Macau, boosting the economy as a whole," he added.
Twenty-one companies, including Las Vegas gambling empire MGM Mirage, Britain's Aspinall's Club Ltd and Malaysian tourism, plantation and energy giant Gen-ting International PLC Group, had bid for the licenses.
Las Vegas casinos say they are banking on the increasingly affluent 1.3 billion mainland Chinese to fuel a gaming boom in Macau.
Tam said the licenses were awarded on a provisional basis.
The three runners-up were: MP Entertainment Co Ltd, which represented Park Place Entertainment Corp and Mandalay Resort Group, MGM Mirage Macau and Macau Star Ltd.
Gambling is banned in Hong Kong and China, which took over Macau in 1999 after more than four centuries of Portuguese rule but allows a high degree of autonomy.
Macau derives more than half its economic activity from the casinos run by Ho.
Since the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, its economy has been in decline.
While Ho's casinos do exude opulence, with marble floors and sparkling chandeliers, gambling patrons crowd grimly around tables in crowded, rundown rooms. Prostitutes openly prowl the corridors.
Staff at Ho's office said the 80-year-old gambling magnate, who spends most of his time in Hong Kong, would be busy with meetings and was not planning to be in Macau yesterday.
Asked about the loss of his monopoly in an interview last year, Ho, whose assets have been valued at US$1.8 billion by Forbes magazine, expressed confidence.
"We are not worried. We are the biggest company in Macau and the richest company," Ho said.
Competition likely won't come right away.
Newcomers will need several years to build their casinos, and the government must find a way to finance the round-the-clock dredging Ho's company has been providing as a condition of the gambling concession
Ho, born into a wealthy Eurasian family that lost its fortune earlier this century, fled penniless from Hong Kong to Macau during World War II and acquired the gambling monopoly in 1962. At the time, Macau was a dying fishing port deluged with refugees from China.
Ho employs about 15,000 people, a fifth of the work force, and owns most of the hotel rooms and high-speed ferries that shuttle visitors from Hong Kong and other Chinese cities.
Ho has been diversifying his business for years, with investments in Portugal, Australia, Vietnam and North Korea as well as a cyber-gaming venture.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland