Gaming back on Taiwan stage

Last December the question of casino gaming in Taiwan was finding few supporters. With presidential elections looming, the topic was considered too controversial.    

However, during the campaigning, now president-elect Ma Ying-jeou said that he supported the idea of a gaming district on the island of Penghu.

And we’re off to the races again.

Asia Pulse News reports that Taiwan’s Miaoli County commissioned an engineering consultancy to study local sites for a gaming district. The completed report identified an 800-hectare piece of land near a salt refinery in Tongsiao Township as a likely spot. The fact that Miaoli County is not on Penghu but on Taiwan proper did not deter local officials, who point out that they are ideally situated midway between northern and southern Taiwan, with good rail and highway networks. President-elect Ma is not known to have been in favor of casinos elsewhere.

Penghu authorities said last year that casinos there would produce the equivalent of $803.2 million in taxes annually and generate more than $1.24 billion worth of foreign and local investment.

One potential operator rooting for Penghu is Larry Woolf, head of casino management company Navegante. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported recently that Amazing Holdings, a land-development company with which Woolf is involved, has 27 acres of beachfront property just waiting for a casino resort project. The land was acquired over the last three years.

Said Woolf, “We’re betting that our site is strategically the best-located opportunity. We own the land free and clear, it’s one of the largest commercial sites on the island and it’s the most likely place where the government would want to locate casinos.”