Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2014 8 COVER STORY S eventeen months have come and gone and nothing has happened since the residents of Matsu voted to bring casinos to their little islands in the Taiwan Strait. With a reserve characteristic of people who aren’t accustomed to much they’ve held their peace while the politicians in Taipei drag their feet. Then one day in early October of last year, in front of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s national lawmaking body, one of them finally spoke up. The Yuan at that point had yet to agree on a bill to guide the licensing and regulation of Matsu’s casinos, and Yeh Kuang Shi, minister of Transportation and Communications, the man in charge of the government’s end of the whole tangled process, was making an appearance. That’s when a member from Matsu stood up and asked what the government planned to do about upgrading the larger of the island’s two modest airports, a project critical for the tourists and gamblers the American William Weidner has promised to bring in their millions. The minister’s answer was anything but what Matsu expected to hear—and it had just about everyone else in the chamber floored as well because it sounded like a shift in government policy away from a longstanding opposition to casinos on Taiwan proper. He began by restating what Weidner Resorts already had proposed: that the casino developers pay for the improvements. But he didn’t stop there. He went to say that gaming on Matsu wouldn’t be worth much, in his view, if it was off limits to mainland Chinese. A better idea, he said, would be to bring it into the special new The Strait and the Narrow Taiwan’s long-awaited gaming law is headed for passage early this year with casinos on the main island out of the picture—or are they? Dongyin Island coastline, Matsu, Taiwan When Penghu scheduled a referendum on casinos shortly after the Offshore Development Act was passed, opponents saw it as a critical first line of defense. economic zone at the country’s main airport, Taoyuan International. Given the proximity to Taipei it would make more money, some of which could be diverted to development on Matsu, and the airport could get its upgrade that way. He said if the Yuan gave the OK he was ready to set his ministry to work on just such a plan. It wasn’t the first pitch for casinos on Taiwan. Since the return