Even as the number of front-running Japanese cities for casino developers shrinks, Yokohama and Tokyo having evidently opted 
out, there’s a dark-horse developer entering the sweepstakes. Macao junket operator Suncity is pledging $10 billion against the prospect of a Japanese casino, “As a junket operator, we don’t have enough chips to play the game even in Macao … We know how to build a Japanese-style integrated resort that fits Asian customers. We know Japanese traditional culture. I believe this is what the Japanese government wants, instead of just branding,” said Executive Director Andrew Lo. Despite the $10 billion pledge, Lo added that Suncity would be willing to take as small as a 10-20% share in a casino mega resort.
The company brings more than money to the table. It also has a pod of “whales.” As IgamiX Managing Partner Ben Lee says, “No casino in Macao has any hope of gaining market share if they don’t have Suncity in their property.” But he thinks Suncity would do best in a ménage-a-trois with a Japanese firm and either Melco Resorts & Entertainment or Galaxy Entertainment. Suncity isn’t wrong to think of itself as a casino operator: Already it runs Vietnam‘s $4 billion Hoi An megaresort in tandem with two other companies.
* Online casino firm 888 made history in a way that it probably didn’t want to: It got slapped with the biggest casino-regulatory fine in British history, over $10 million. Why? Because it’s self-exclusion protocol was as flimsy as a twig. Reports the BBC, “7,000 customers who had chosen to bar themselves from their 888 accounts were still able to gamble.” One of these punters was wagering $1.7 million a month (including a large tranche of embezzled money, which will now be refunded) for over a year before he was caught. $4.5 million of the fine will be used to refund self-excluded players who had deposited money in 888 accounts. The company will also have to pony up a substantial sum to help disordered-gambling programs.
* The Culinary Union wasted no time in wading into the fight against Donald Trump‘s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programs. The move is significant in that the Culinary has been mum on Trump policy since it signed a union contract at Trump International shortly after the election. “This is not what the United States of America represents, nor is it 
who we are. This policy is another clear example of White Supremacy strategies and tactics and we denounce it,” wrote the Culinary’s Bethany Khan. “We call on our Las Vegas employers on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas to stand with your workforce and to not let this immoral decision pass quietly … We may have a temporary president, but the 57,000 workers we represent, the immigrants in our community, and those resisting everyday in the streets, are here to stay.” What if all immigrant workers represented by the Culinary were to take a day off and march down the Strip? Wouldn’t that be something? Could the casinos function without them?
