Inside Asian Gaming

January 2013 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 13 FEATURES its citizens wishing to visit Macau and Hong Kong from the second half of 2003. Demand from mainland China—now by far the city’s main source of visitors—has underpinned Macau’s stratospheric casino boom and grown the pie to such an extent that there should theoretically be enough for all the competing triad groups. The triads, in turn, have reinvented themselves through their interests in junket and VIP operations, earning wealth and legitimacy far beyond what they could have imagined when they were waging war in the ’90s. Mr Wan’s release is unlikely to spark a return to the bad old days. “There’s too much money at stake,” according to Credit Suisse Group analyst Gabriel Chan. “If I were another junket, I’d do my best to stop him messing things up.” Chinese are known for their pragmatism, especially when it comes to business. The other groups will likely find a face-saving, behind-the-scenes accommodation that provides Mr Wan a livelihood sufficient to maintain his flashy tastes. After all, the pie, measured in terms of Macau’s gross gaming revenue, stood at US$38 billion in 2012. Any temptationMrWanmay face to seek a bigger sharewill be tempered by the understanding he was absent while that pie grew to its current level, as well as his awareness of Beijing’s track record of executing gangsters that get out of line. Demand from mainland China—now by far the city’s main source of visitors—has underpinned Macau’s stratospheric casino boom and grown the pie to such an extent that there should theoretically be enough for all the competing triad groups. I t has been a long time since Antonio Marques Baptista, director of the colonial Judiciary Police, watched his car explode in flames as he went jogging with his dog on Macau’s Guia Hill on 1st May 1998. Hours after the car bomb went off, Wan Kuok Koi, then the leader of a faction of Macau’s 14K triad society, was behind bars. He was never charged in connection with the bombing, but it was the final straw for the Portuguese authorities. In the weeks prior to the attack, six murders were linked to triads—including a Marine Police officer, a gambling inspector and the chauffeur of the territory’s most senior crime fighter. Mr Wan was eventually jailed for a string of gangland crimes. The litany of charges against him included a plot to import a vast arsenal of weaponry, including anti-aircraft missiles, hand grenades and automatic weapons from Cambodia. In the end, his boasts about being the head of a criminal clan and related racketeering saw him sent up for nearly 15 years. Of course, there was more to Mr Wan’s downfall than a simple police investigation and highly publicized trial. Internecine underworld warfare also played its part in taking down the brash and boastful gangster known as “Broken Tooth”. Flashy tastes—“Broken Tooth” in his heyday The Godfather of South China At the height of his power in 1998, 14K triad boss Wan Kuok Koi graced TIME magazine and was tipped— audaciously—by the publication as being “set to become one of the world’s top crime bosses”