Penghu voters will go to the polls on Saturday in a referendum that could be key to opening up the casino industry in Taiwan. Although the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is opposed to gambling, it may be hard for the government to ignore the wishes of the people if two islands give the thumbs up.
Taiwan President promises to do more for Penghu Island after residents vote against legalization of casinos
The vote to legalize casinos on Penghu, one of Taiwan’s outlying islands, was held on October 15 and close to 40 percent of the locals turned out to vote. The Penghu Election Commission released the results of the vote and confirmed that 39.56 percent of the people voted and 26,598 of them voted against the referendum and just 6,210 people voted in favor of the referendum. This was the second time that Penghu residents had voted on a referendum to legalize the casino industry and on both occasions the residents have objected to the referendum.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) party were also not in favor of legalizing the casino industry in Penghu and the DPP had asked Penghu residents in September to say no to the referendum. President Tsai Ing-wen also went on record to state that Penghu did not need the casino industry to boost its economy and wanted the local administrators to focus on improving its tourism initiatives.
The alliance that was pushing for the Penghu referendum to go through was disappointed with the result but accepted the fact that at this point of time Penghu residents were not open to the casino industry. Chen Meng, the Alliance convenor stated that the lack of support from the DPP and the President’s remarks had a negative impact on the vote. The President’s office was pleased with the result and promised to do more for Penghu Island and help with its growth. In a statement, Hsu Kuo-yung , the Executive Yuan representative said “In future, the Cabinet will work closely with Penghu County government to do more for Penghu residents.”
The first referendum vote which took place in September 2009 was a lot closer with 17,369 cast against legalizing the casino industry while 13,397 votes were cast in favor of the referendum. While proponents of the referendum have worked hard to over the last 7 years to get voters to change their mind, the second vote shows that Penghu residents are even more opposed now to the possibility of hosting casinos on the Island.
Chen Kuang-fu, the Penghu County Magistrate stated that Penghu would follow the government’s original plan and promote development on the Island. Penghu receives more than 1 million tourists every year and Chen believes that these numbers will continue to grow as Penghu looks to promote itself as a top tourist destination. Penghu will host the World Congress of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World during 2018.
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Organized by Global Poker Index Asia and CTP Club, GPI Asia Poker Festival is set to make a triumphant return in Taipei City, Taiwan with ten days of games taking place at the Asia Poker Arena.
Now in its third installment, the annual event takes place from May 17 to 26, 2024. With poker in the country growing in leaps and bounds, larger returns have been promised highlighted by a guaranteed prize pool exceeding 5 Million New Taiwan Dollars (~USD 153,700). Raymond Wong from GPI Asia expressed.
GPI Asia Póker Festival
The Global Poker League kicks off the festivities. It is the most exciting Teams Event introduced in Asia featuring a NTD $300,000 (~USD $9,200) guarantee. Now in its seventh edition, the three-day event will see teams compete in various formats and in two variants – No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. Buy in is NTD $20,000 (~USD $615) per team.
Each team is made up of four players – 1 captain and 3 players. In addition to the cash prize, the winning team will receive THM Championship Taiwan seats worth NTD $7,000 per member.
HSBC Global Research predicts that MGM China, Wynn Macau, Galaxy, and Sands China will pay dividends in 2024, while Melco and SJM are likely to withhold dividends.
In a recent report on HSBC Global Investment Summit 2024 key takeaways, the financial services agency said that Macau’s gaming demand remains healthy, while gaming operators “remain committed to shareholder returns”. Analysts Charlene Liu, Jessie Lu, and Lauren Cai maintain a ‘buy’ rating for MGM China and Galaxy, noting that both operators observed positive trends across all business segments, with notable upticks in VIP segment.
Macau gaming stocks remain intact, supported by a steady daily gross gaming revenue.
Earlier in March, MGM China announced a final dividend of HKD0.243 per share and a special dividend of HKD0.104 per share for 2023. Similarly, Wynn Macau declared a final dividend of HKD0.075 per share for the same fiscal year.
“With growing offerings of non-gaming events of a different nature, both[operators] expect to see travelers return more often to Macau and the seasonality trend to smoothen out,” the analysts said.
Thailand’s Ministry of Finance has been appointed lead agency to consider a House committee study recommending the legalization of casino gaming but will work with 16 other agencies in doing so, local media reports.
Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat, who chairs the House committee, said earlier that the complexes would create jobs, boost tourism, and curb illegal gambling. He expected the complexes to generate 40-50 billion baht of revenue annually. After the plan is greenlighted, a policy-level committee will be established to supervise the project, to be chaired by the Prime Minister, he said.
Thailand’s National Assembly to debate introducing casinos on March 28
An administration-level committee will then be formed, comprised of ministers and executives from related agencies to consider each aspect of the project in detail.
The 16 other agencies named include the ministries of Tourism and Sports, Social Development and Human Security, Higher Education Science Research and Innovation, Agriculture and Cooperatives, Transport, Interior, Justice, Labour, Culture, Education, Public Health and Industry.
The study itself recommends imposing a 17% tax on gross gaming revenue – making it one of the lowest tax regimes in the region – with locals to be required to pay an entry levy of an amount yet to be determined. License duration would be set at an initial 20 years and then renewable every five years, while the larger casino complexes would require a minimum investment of US$2.7 billion.
The Office of the Council of State, the National Economic and Social Development Council, the National Office of Buddhism and the Royal Thai Police will also be consulted.
In march, a total of 36.301 billion yuan of lottery tickets were sold nationwide, a year-on-year decrease of 5.509 billion yuan or 13.2%. Among them, the sales of welfare lottery institutions were 12.632 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 899 million yuan, a decrease of 6.6%; the sales of sports lottery institutions were 23.669 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.610 billion yuan, a decrease of 16.3%. This is mainly because the market was closed during the Spring Festival holiday in February this year.
Cumulatively from January to February, a total of 93.865 billion yuan in lottery tickets were sold nationwide, an increase of 18.832 billion yuan or 25.1% year-on-year.
Among them, the sales of welfare lottery institutions were 32.322 billion yuan, an increase of 7.950 billion yuan or 32.6% year-on-year; the sales of sports lottery institutions were 61.543 billion yuan, an increase of 10.882 billion yuan or 21.5% year-on-year.
Foreigner-only casino operator Grand Korea Leisure which operates three casinos in South Korea and Seoul and Busan under the Seven Luck brand reported a 19.9% month-on-month increase in casino revenue to KRW40.4 billion (US$29.9 million) in March, which was also 4.4% higher than the same month in 2023.
The strong result, comprising a 19.7% sequential increase in table revenue to KRW37.3 billion (US$27.6 million) and 22.7% increase in slots revenue to KRW3.06 billion (US$2.27 million), came off a 10.1% improvement in drop to KRW321.1 billion (US$237.5 million).
This brings casino sales for the first three months of 2024 combined to KRW93.7 billion (US$69.3 million), down 12.9% on the same period last year but on the rise after a slow start to the year.
Table drop of KRW916.0 billion (US$677.4 million) through March is up 21.5% higher year-on-year.
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