Inside Asian Gaming

July 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 15 W hile it’s correct that the Macao Studio City site was never gazetted for gaming under Macau’s 2008 development plan, this doesn’t exclude the possibility of a casino being allowed on the site, Inside Asian Gaming has been told. “The mistake people are making is to assume that gazetting under the land use plan is the only route to getting a casino. That’s not the case,” a source familiar with Macau planning procedures told IAG . “Land can be used for gaming if a letter of authorisation to that effect is obtained from the DICJ [Macau’s gaming regulator]. My understanding is such a letter of authorisation from the DICJ has been granted to the Macao Studio City project some time ago,” adds the source. Article 46 of the License Contract of Macao Special Administrative Region for the Operation of Games of Fortune or Chance or Other Casino Games appears to give the Macau government—i.e. the Chief Executive and Executive Council— discretion on whether land is licensed for gaming use. It states:“1. The licensing rules, especially the rules of licensing land for the use by the Concessionaire to engage in the licensed In Focus Never Say Never Macao Studio City could still be allowed a casino—whatever the territory’s land development blueprint may say services, shall be specified in relevant land license contracts. “2. The land license contract concluded between the Government and the Concessionaire shall be governed by the applicable provisions of this License Contract.” In other words, the land licensing rules will follow a legal framework, but policy as to who gets the land will be decided by the Government. IAG ’s source adds: “There are several precedents within the Macau market of properties being allowed to offer gaming while sitting on non-gaming gazetted land.” One of the most famous examples is Galaxy StarWorld, built on the edge of a reclamationareaonMacaupeninsulaknown asNAPE.The siteonwhichStarWorld sitswas originally gazetted in 1992 for a hotel and retail complex a maximum 19 storeys high. The land lease was for 25 years. The reason for the height restriction was because in the 1990s the Portuguese administration conceived NAPE as a medium-rise, modest density zone with significant amounts of public open space. But in 2003, Macau’s first Chief Executive Edmund Ho used his executive powers to grant Galaxy the right to build a 33-storey casino hotel on the site—ignoring the previous zoning and exceeding the old height restriction by a whopping 14 storeys. Taken in that context, the remarks of Lau Si Io, Macau’s Secretary for Transport and Public Works, made to the media recently about Macao Studio City look less categorical now than they seemed at the time. Some commentators had assumed Mr Lau was sending a message to the market when he said that a casino was not mentioned for Macao Studio City under the 2008 development plan and that the plan—currently for hotels and a film studio facility—must be adhered to as it stands. Those commentators took this to be a sign that the MSC plan to construct a casino resort there by the revised date of 2015 Galaxy’s StarWorld Hotel & Casino—built on land not originally earmarked for gaming