Inside Asian Gaming

Oct 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING dealing like any other croupier would—except she makes plenty of eye contact with the web camera trained on her. Mr Woo can’t say howmany online visitors they get at casinos based inside the 12-year old Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Free Port, but will say that “traffic is increasing substantially.” According to a recent International Herald Tribune report, East- ern Hawaii Leisure—one of around 40 operators in Cagayan—is seeing as much as US$13 million in bets every day. That could grow much further if Beijing continues to tighten its grip over illicit online gaming on the mainland. In 2006 alone, Chinese authorities claimed to have cracked down on 347,700 illegal gam- bling operations and seized US$445 million in cash. Sure, there’s Macau for mainland Chinese gamblers, but the city still forbids online gaming operations—and mooted plans to implement regulations and taxes for online gaming will likely gather dust until the next Macau Chief Executive comes into power in 2009, according to media reports in Macau. Solid backing Moreover, the Cagayan zone is fertile ground for Macom thanks to the backing of powerful 83-year-old Senator Juan Ponce En- rile, who is in charge of the zone, and is “very friendly to us,” says Mr Woo. Macom also stands to benefit from the growing demand from online gaming opera- tors in Europe and the Caribbean for provid- ers who can deliver solid Chinese language support and content management. Everyone wants a piece of the China action and Macom is well poised to deliver it, remarks Mr Woo. It’s critical for companies like Macom that Chinese internet gamblers have nearby legal jurisdictions to go to. As such, Macom is an- ticipating that more jurisdictions in Asia will warm to internet gambling in the future as gaming liberalization catches on. 35