It could be a case of the tail wagging the dog if the extremely LOUD whispers heard early this year and have now become solid news, Macau will be rebooted as an exciting tourist destination in early 2023.
Hong Kong? Still struggling to come to grips with life in the real world?
Tenders for NEW casino licenses closed yesterday evening with a late bid by the wild card in the pack- Malaysia’s Genting Group led by billionaire Lim Kok Thay through GMM Limited.
This should send shivers down the backbone and everywhere else of the existing license holders as Genting is seen as “the only truly global operator” and able to invest heavily in non-gaming activities like theme parks and anything else that makes business and commercial sense.
The addition of GMM means there are now seven bids for a maximum of six concessions to be granted under Macau’s revamped tendering process.
Revamped, dig?
All six current concessionaires have submitted their bids. The new concessions, and with several top advisors with global experience in different businesses were brought in to look at non gaming activities and provide input pertaining to the overall rules for the retendering of gaming concessions.
The Macau government will review the presentations, negotiate best case scenarios and the winners announced by the end of this year.
Not surprisingly, some of the key players involved are family of the late and legendary Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho. If their bids are successful, they will take over much more than those roulette tables of life. They are not silly people.
We could be totally off the mark- and perhaps not-but with all the hardware in place- hotels, restaurants, casinos, clubs, theme parks etc- there is apparently a masterplan for Macau with Taipa Island to be turned into the Ibiza of Asia and Coloane being positioned as “the Monte Carlo Of The East”.
According to one of the leading artists management companies in LA, names booked and heading to Macau for One Night Only performances in the leading casinos next year include- wait for it- Beyoncé, J-Lo, Justin Timberlake, Adele, Bruno Mars and John Legend.
Don’t even ask if any of these hugely popular international artists will be making it over to Hong Kong.
When Macau was playing host to similar big name international acts not that long ago, and when Hong Kong was still funky town, the city was not even on the radars of artist management.
Why would anything be any different now with a masked city seemingly being run by the “fun police” of health officials and many in Hong Kong walking on eggshells despite these being cracked?
If we didn’t know any better one might think that Hong Kong is still being spanked for what came to be known as the Umbrella Movement and those naive “freedom fighters” of 2019 who poked the bear and tested its patience.
Forgive and forget? What do you think?
