Inside Asian Gaming

IAG OCT 2022年10月 亞博匯 70 In March, LVS Chairman and CEO Rob Goldstein revealed the company was in talks with a “major country” around “building something of scale much like Marina Bay Sands.” Analysts were quick to suggest that this major country was likely Thailand. More recently, in August, MGM’s CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle confirmed his company’s interest in new investment opportunities around the world and that it was specifically keeping a close eye on Thailand. Speaking alongside Bromberg at G2E Asia, former SVP of Development for Hard Rock International, Daniel Cheng, argued there was no reason to think Thailand’s regulatory environment would dissuade the world’s major IR operators from investing. “Even in Macau, when they did the first regulation back in 2002, the law was enough to allow American operators to come in – despite the fact that the junkets were there,” Cheng recalls. “Maybe the bar has risen now because of lessons learned, but I think from a regulatory point of view … for this pending casino legislation there is almost unanimous support from all sides of the political realm. And we can’t discard the fact that they have convened an extraordinary committee that has been meeting since December and has held two dozen meetings comprising over 100 people. So the will [of Thailand to legalize casinos] is very clear and I FEATURES