Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2011 32 O xford-educated Aung San Suu Kyi— the de facto leader of the opposition to Myanmar’s military government—is currently being feted in the West as the darling of that country’s democracy movement. Whether she would be as free- market minded as Western governments would like were she to come to power is another matter. She is from the old Burmese elite. Her father, Aung San, who helped to negotiate the British withdrawal, was also a founder member of the Communist Party of Burma. He was assassinated in 1947 by right- wing paramilitaries. Many in Myanmar think the British had a hand in his death. Even if that were the case, there are sound political and economic reasons for Ms Aung to cooperate with both the West and China in the pursuit of a formalised gaming industry. Tax revenue is less important for Myanmar—with its natural resources—than it is for tiny Macau. But a fully legal casino industry could help pacify further Myanmar’s sometimeswildborderareas.Militaryconflict with the central government started in those places soon after independence as an ethnic and party-political struggle. The border provinces are ethnically non-Burmese, poor, and historically have supported guerrilla movements. As in Afghanistan, these guerrilla movements have traditionally used narcotics production and trafficking to fund their activities. But also—as inAfghanistan— some of the guerrilla movements moved from ideological struggle to warlordism. They were aided and abetted in this process by successive Burmesemilitary governments that effectively bought off the guerrillas by allowing them or their associates to run border casinos in order to launder their funds, grow rich and divert their energies into commerce rather than politics. Those states are now calmer than they were, but not yet entirely under the control of the central government. The main areas for border casinos in Myanmar are Shan State in the north— where the frontiers of China, Laos and Thailand abut Myanmar’s border in the area known internationally as The Golden Triangle—and Kayin State (also known as Karen State)—which borders Thailand further south. It’s no accident that the military junta decided to move its new capital—and the bulk of its military forces—away from the coast and nearer to the main industrial city Mandalay and the occasionally troublesome Shan State. The Chinese also have good political reasons to want Shan State calmer and quieter. Chinese criminals from neighbouring Yunnan province are said to launder their proceeds via the casinos in Mong La in Shan State. But the relationship between the border gambling venues and the authorities on both sides seems made up of many shades of grey rather than simple black and white. “They are ‘legal’ in the sense that the Myanmar government does take its cut of the gaming revenue and they [the Burmese] do station immigration officers within the premises of the casinos to facilitate foreign visitors’ entry,” says Ben Lee. “There are no formal gaming taxes on these operations. The government’s cut varies, depending on what arrangement it has with the casinos.” “On the Thai border you have them in the Chiang Rai region in the far north— otherwise known as the Golden Triangle. To my knowledge there are eight casinos operating there—two in one district and six in another district called Tachilek. “On the China part of that border in a region called Mong La there are casinos owned by a variety of people—Malaysians, Thais, Chinese—that are targeting the southern Chinese as customers. They have a love-hate relationship with the Chinese authorities—the minute the business gets too big, China shuts the border to leisure travellers. Then they [Chinese authorities] let it lie fallow for a while, then they gradually open up; it gets big again, and they shut it down again—and so it goes on,” adds Ben Lee. “Then further south where the Thai- Myanmar peninsula narrows, there’s a town called Myeik that’s about a 20-minute flight from Hua Hin in Thailand. A casino resort has been built there. Even further south, there are a couple of islands in the Andaman Sea with casino hotels. All these places are predominantly Thai-owned. “Away from the border, within Myanmar itself, there are no legal casinos. There was one operating in the middle of Yangon, in a In Focus Taming the Badlands Would a freely-elected government push even harder for casinos than the army? State of unrest—Myanmar’s border provinces are traditionally restive Border casino—Paradise at Chiang Rai