Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | March 2008 Feature international waters of the South China Sea before opening for business. Legal fiction The concept of ‘international waters’ is well known, but even this has its limitations, says Ms Stewart-Jones. “In broad terms, ‘international waters’ is a fiction because there are hundreds and hundreds of treaties covering situations. For example, you can’t murder someone in international waters.” She says in some countries, the official attitude to in-flight gambling is clear-cut. “For one client, the particular jurisdiction they were asking about gave huge problems because it was absolutely black and white clear that in the country where the plane was registered and where the airline was based, it was illegal. We did try to persuade the client down the route of being slightly more creative. We suggested if they were doing it by junkets so the money wasn’t being handled on the aircraft, there might be an argument to say it wasn’t actually gambling. This would also mean they weren’t making the airline staff complicit in facilitating gambling, provided they were doing it by way of a voucher system or a card. The idea was once the player had played the game, they would come to a land-based casino and redeem it there.” In the end, says Ms Stewart-Jones, the client chose not to proceed with the project. Loopholes Mr Adelson appears to be relying on several loopholes in the 1994 Gorton Amendment to US federal gambling legislation. The Gorton Amendment was sponsored by former Washington republican senator Slade Gorton, who eventually lost his seat for opposing native American casinos in his home state. It reads:“An air carrier or foreign air carrier may not install, transport, or operate, or permit the use of, any gambling device on board an aircraft in foreign air transportation.” The relevant words appear to be ‘air carrier’, ‘foreign air carrier’ and ‘device’. Mr Adelson’s legal team seems to be arguing a baccarat table is not a ‘device’. If that legal nicety isn’t enough to get him off the hook, he will claim that as a private air operator, he is not a ‘carrier’. These interior concepts from Boeing Business Jets offer an idea of the luxury that could await VIP gamblers in the skies 16 Reluctant regulators The Federal Aviation Administration appears to back him up, suggesting, firstly, that the relevant law effectively excludes private aircraft and charter flights from the gambling ban, and secondly, that the FAA is, in any case, not in the business of regulating gambling. The Nevada Gaming Control Board’s position seems to be that any in-flight casino run by a Nevada-licensed operator would count as ‘foreign gaming’. As such, the Nevada licence-holder would need to satisfy the Board that it was running a fit and proper business and provide regular reports of activities. The Board declines to comment in more detail, as it says it hasn’t yet received a formal proposal. “I expect the operator would really want to discuss it with the authorities first,” says Jamie Nettleton of Addisons. “There will be so much invested in it that I’d be surprised if they’d do it on spec.”