Question of the Day - 08 October 2024

This question has, essentially, a one-word answer, but we're dressing it up to give you your QoD money's worth today. 

The one word is no. None. Nada. Nary a one. Zero. Zippo. Zilch. 

Some casinos have flirted with Chinese themes (the unlucky Lucky Dragon, the early designs for Resorts World, and of course the old Imperial Palace, the first Asian-themed casino on the Strip). However, Chinese casino ownership is a bridge yet to be crossed.

The reasons for this are manifold. As much as the casino industry covets Chinese business — to say nothing of business in China — Las Vegas isn't too popular with the People's Republic. Part of this has to do with relatively recent concerns over money laundering and the illegal export of currency, which often involve American casino company misdeeds to accommodate Chinese whales.

There is also a major political issue. With a thin veneer of separation in China between "private" industry and the Central Committee, any attempt by a Chinese national or national company to buy in to the Las Vegas casino trade would undoubtedly be seen hereabouts as an effort to not only exert political influence on Las Vegas, but to siphon off money for the greater glory of Beijing.

Lastly, and most importantly, there is the long and not-so-illustrious history of Chinese organized crime. Even more than in the U.S., it's baked into the legacy of the casino industry and not just in China itself, but also many other jurisdictions around the world. Which makes Chinese ownership of American casinos, shall we say, unwelcome. 

The godfather of this was the late Stanley Ho, who was so notoriously intertwined with the Chinese underworld, notably the Triads, that it raised more than a few eyebrows when MGM Resorts International went into business with him in Macau.

Specifically, Ho held the sub-concession (or license) that MGM coveted for entry into the Chinese enclave. Not only did MGM pay a king’s ransom for the sub-concession, but the CEO at the time, Terry Lanni, did so by circumventing his own compliance committee to such a degree that it contributed to a rather ignominious end of his career.

As New Jersey regulators, much less pliant than Nevada's, concluded, the elder Ho was so blatantly mobbed up that it was impossible to countenance MGM as a casino licensee, at least not until the insertion of a couple of degrees of separation. It didn't help that Stanley Ho had shown up at both the groundbreaking and opening of MGM Grand Macau, which he tactlessly (but not without a grain of truth) referred to as “my casino.”

Such indiscretions duly found their way into the New Jersey dossier, which concluded that Pansy Ho (daughter of old Stan) was a stalking horse for the paterfamilias. Pansy had already been found suitable in Nevada, albeit for part ownership in a casino that was well outside the Silver State. But money talks at the Nevada Gaming Control Board and on this occasion, it was quite loquacious.

Fast-forward to the current decade. Stanley Ho died in 2020 at the age of 98, but his spirit marches on. Pansy Ho seized control of MGM China in a power play and now effectively calls the shots not only in Macau, but also in Thailand, where MGM aspires to go next. (In fact, it may open a Thai casino before MGM Osaka is finished in 2030.)

However, given Pansy Ho’s own Triad associations (she's the former girlfriend of the notorious “Broken Tooth” Koi, former leader of the Macau branch of the 14K Triad who was released from prison in 2012 after serving more than 14 years), it's extremely unlikely that her licensure as a Nevada casino owner, should she even want it, would ever happen. Other Chinese nationals with an interest in American casino companies are thin on the ground, a situation we don't expect to change anytime soon.

By the way and completely coincidentally, we're just now working on a huge new book about this very subject. Casino Redux -- Unveiling the Global Casino Network of Chinese Organized Crime, by long-time Nevada gaming attorney Anthony Cabot, covers this ground and much much more in such detail that it has 2,200 footnotes. It's a fascinating and somewhat horrifying story that you'll be hearing more about as the book nears completion.