Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2013 12 FEATURES Mr Wan’s interests were not completely left behind during Macau’s boom, however, with members of his family, and possibly members of his old crew who have either avoided imprisonment or been released, exerting their influence on some of the city’s VIP operations. debts, especially when it comes to players from mainland China, where the courts don’t recognize gambling debts.” He adds, “You have to give [the triads] some credit for the contributions they have made to the gambling industry and to Macau.” Mr Wan’s interests were not completely left behind during Macau’s boom, however, with members of his family, and possibly members of his old crew who have either avoided imprisonment or been released, exerting their influence on some of the city’s VIP operations. Reports are that Mr Wan may be seeking to get involved in under-the-table side-betting in certain of the private high-roller rooms—a practice, never acknowledged or officially verified, that allows the circumvention of the government’s burdensome 39% effective gaming tax rate. War and Peace Mr Wan’s imprisonment marked the cessation of the triad turf wars and escalating gangland violence that wracked Macau in the latter half of the decade leading up to the handover of sovereignty from Portugal to China at the end of 1999. The turf wars were exacerbated by Macau’s economic stagnation in the latter half of the ’90s, leaving competing gangs to scrap over a diminishing pie of gamblingmoney. In Mr Wan’s heyday, Hong Kongers constituted the vast majority of visitors to the city, and triads made money through loan-sharking, running illegal gambling operations and other vice activities. Following Mr Wan’s imprisonment and Macau’s reintegration with the motherland, mainland Chinese visitors began featuring more prominently in the visitor mix, especiallyfollowingthecentralgovernment’s progressive easing of travel restrictions on Macau’s Gross Domestic Product US$ billions 40 35 US$36.4 billion 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2011 Source:World Bank