Inside Asian Gaming

IAG OCT 2022年10月 亞博匯 72 FEATURES think the government would be able to enact legislation that is of a standard enough for international investors to be compliant with their home jurisdictions. “Of course, the reality once it actually opens, just like the cannabis law, is another story.” According to Cheng, Thailand’s will to develop a successful casino industry differs somewhat to other Southeast Asian nations – the likes of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and to a lesser extent the Philippines – where governments are either unaware of holes in their regulatory framework or lacking the motivation to plug them. What, for example, are international investors to make of the recent situation at Okada Manila, where a group representing ousted chairman Kazuo Okada stormed the property and seized control for a full three months before the regulator granted permission for the legal owners to retaliate? It is in this regard that Cheng also believes Thailand holds “last mover advantage”, allowing it to take on board all the successes of jurisdictions like Singapore and the failures of others like Japan in determining how its own regulatory framework should look. “They have the opportunity to assess this and then match it to their particular cultural