Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING DECEMBER 2018 20 have you done in the last 15 years?” As such the Power 50 list is very dynamic as people move up, and down, and on, for a multitude of reasons. As part of this year’s exercise we looked over the lists for the previous 10 years and surprised ourselves at how many names are no longer on the list, or the names who were once in the top 10 or 20 and who are now much lower. A phenomenon that repeatedly presents during the making of the list each year is the “My business has grown therefore I should move up the list” fallacy. The truth is everyone lifts in a rising tide and because, as a general rule, the majority of people on the list are managing businesses that grow each year, just to maintain a spot on the list requires annual growth. Someone doing the same thing year after year and achieving similar results will slowly slip down the list as the years roll by. Dilemmas Although we have become quite adept at putting this list together, the task seems to get more complex each year as the Asian gaming industry matures and becomes more nuanced. How on earth does one compare the sole owner of a smaller property to the brand new “hired help” COO of a much larger one? How about comparing a large property that is still in pre-opening to a smaller one that has been active for years? A junket operator in Macau versus the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club? Or the head of a smallish casino company about to go public to the President of a casino chain in Korea that doesn’t have locals gaming? These are the types of tough questions the selection panel of the Asian Gaming Power 50 wrestles with. As with any such ranked list, there are always criticisms and objections, usually from those who feel slighted. We often hear claims of not reading the list or not caring about it, but we are often contacted either directly or through surrogates to bemoan the injustice of a perceived lowly position and to lobby for the following year. Strangely, no-one has ever contacted us to complain about being ranked too high! Decisions This year we welcome two new members to the selection panel: Professor Davis Fong, Director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macau and member of Macau’s Legislative Assembly; and Constance Hsu, Director of Cheng Ying Group and former President of Mocha Clubs. Over the last decade the Asian Gaming Power 50 has become the definitive list of the industry’s most important people and as such we play a vital role in the industry and have Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson has topped the Asian Gaming Power 50 list for the past five years. ASIAN GAMING POWER 2 0 1 8