With so many of its Asian neighbors already in the throngs of having lucrative casino industries, Taiwan’s push to become its own gambling destination in Asia is facing a huge 2014.
Years have passed and talks about passing casino legislation in Taiwan have turned up nothing substantive, or at least concrete enough to see a clear direction as to where the whole business – or lack thereof – is going.
But that all could change this year as Taiwan continues to see one neighbor after another opening their lands to casinos. And nobody wants to be the one who was late to the party, especially a party that has money written all over it.
Interest in Taiwan is already there as a handful of the world’s biggest operators have included the country as a viable target to build developments should casino legislation pass.
Discussions have been there and that’s a positive sign. But on the flip side, numerous delays, including one that just occurred last month, has kept it from gaining any sort of momentum. And there have been so many amendments to the legislation that you would think there are far too many chefs in the kitchen trying to cook the same damn thing.
At some point, and there has been some talk that final approval to the legislation, dubbed the Casino Management Act, could happen sometime this month. That’s the major hurdle that needs to be cleared.
Should the legislation somehow pass, bids for resort-casino projects ought to take place fast and quick with the Matsu archipelago expected to be one of the first to throw its hat into the mix. It already has the public’s backing in operating casinos and its leaders are already waiting for legislation to know how the mechanics work on successfully filing applications.
At least one public figure in Taiwan is confident that Matsu will get its casino sooner than most. “Given that the act could be successfully passed in the beginning of year 2014, we optimistically expect that the earliest time the casino could open to public in Matsu is around 2019,” says Lin Kuo-shian, director-general of Taiwan’s transportation ministry department, as quoted by Forbes Asia.
But all that is for naught if a casino legislation isn’t passed. Expectations are rife that it’ll happen this year, possibly as early as this month. But given the track record of how Taiwan’s push to legalize casinos have gone, it’s hard to really know until all those t’s are crossed and those i’s are dotted.
