Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING APRIL 2018 12 THE MACAU HORSE Racing Company, operator of Macau Jockey Club, has been given three years to repay MOP$150 million in overdue fees or have its horse racing license terminated. The ultimatum, revealed by Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong, was revealed as a condition of the shock 24-year license extension the company was granted in late February. According to Leong, the owed fees include an annuity set by the concession contract, a share of the value of aggregate amounts bet – which will be directed to the government’s Pension Fund – and unclaimed prizes. The government had requested, starting in 2015, that the company pay a certain portion of the due amounts on a yearly basis with all the money to be settled within a 10- year period. Under the terms of a concession extension granted in 2005, the company had been required to pay, among other dues, a fixed annuity of MOP$15 million, but the company had informed the government that because it had run at a loss between MACAU HORSE RACING COMPANY GIVEN THREE YEARS TO REPAY DEBTS OR LOSE LICENSE Korean President Moon Jae-in has fired 226 employees of Kangwon Land found to have been hired via political connections. Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told local press that the government was set to initiate the process of dismissing all employees who landed their positions as a result of corrupt and unfair hiring practices at Kangwon Land, the only casino in Korea where locals are allowed to gamble. “President Moon Jae-in today ordered the government to take swift and thorough Korean President fires 226 illegal Kangwon Land employees measures against employment-related corruption at public organizations, best known through the Kangwon Land case,” Eui-kyeom said. He added that a meeting of government officials had decided to “take measures, such as dismissal from office, against all 226 workers who were found to have been accepted through illicit means.” The move follows a series of raids by a special unit of the Supreme Prosecutors Office on the offices of Kangwon Land Inc and the government department that oversees it, the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. The homes of three people including a former senior official at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism were also raided. Evidence of Kangwon Land’s illegal hiring practices emerged late last year following an investigation by the Moon Government. President Moon has made no secret of his desire to stamp out such practices since taking office in May, with a number of other public companies set to face similar probes under his watch. In September, Kangwon Land released a statement admitting that 493 of the 518 people it had hired from 2012 to 2013 were appointed due to connections with various “influential people.” 2002 and the present day it could not afford to pay. The government has subsequently granted an exemption from the payment, either in part or in whole, in certain years. The Macau Horse Racing Company’s concession was last month extended by 24 years and six months until 31 August 2042 after it pledged to invest MOP$1.5 billion to upgrade existing facilities. Those upgrades would include a number of non- gaming elements such as multiple hotels and restaurants. Leong said that the planned investment would have to be in place according to an agreed schedule or the concession would be terminated.