Relations Between Las Vegas Casino Execs and Macau Casino Owners Exposed
The latest WikiLeaks diplomatic cables to be released have given a view into the relationship between the US government and the Macau casino industry.
Perhaps the biggest revelation is the fact that the WikiLeaks cables show a strained relationship between the Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho, owner of SJM Holdings Ltd, and Las Vegas casino executives.
There is also evidence in the leaked cables that Las Vegas casino executives have concerns that organised crime is benefitting from gambling junkets and that even though the Chinese government has a ban on gambling apart from within the Macau region, there are doubts about how distanced from gambling the Chinese government actually is.
The leaked cables also shows how there were concerns about the visa restrictions placed on Chinese mainlanders travelling to Macau to gamble. These restrictions are believed to have set the industry back by 15% in visitor numbers and they were a blow to a lot of the casinos, especially US owned casinos such as Sands China, MGM and Wynn Macau.
These visa restrictions then sparked assertions from the Consul General, Joseph Donovan, to one of Stanley Ho’s executives that members of the Triads had links and influence with decisions being made regarding the gambling industry in Macau.
This strained relationship between Stanley Ho and the US casino executives became evident again when Donovan had a conversation with Macau Chief Executive Lawrence Ho about Stanley Ho’s relationship with Las Vegas Sands share holder Sheldon Adelson. Lawrence Ho stated “Stanley can sometimes be a cry-baby. He isn’t against foreigners. He just dislikes Sheldon, and vice-versa.”
The coming weeks are set to be very interesting as the fall out from these WikiLeaks leaked diplomatic cables begins and is set to test the already volatile relationship between the Las Vegas casino executives and the Macau casino owners.
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