Taiwan opens up Gaming Industry

Ma Ying-jeou Pledges to Open Up Gambling Business

It has been announced on (CENS) that the President-elect Ma Ying-Jeou of Taiwan has announced on April 9, that they are pushing for the opening of a gambling business to aid Penghu’s fight with their economy. This business will encourage the development of the offshore Island Penghu. The resident’s plea, finally being fulfilled, is to use the proposed gambling business for revitalization of their slow economy. On a side note, a number of other small areas are actively seeking permission for the development of a gambling business as well. The extended amount that a gambling business can boost economy has not passed by the municipalities of Taipei county, Kaohsiung County, Miaoli county, Taoyuan country, Taichung City, Changua county, and Taitun County. It was also stated by Ma, to the official residents of Penghu, that the gambling business may be developed further when central government is able to delegate municipal governments. This will help deduce whether the business is truly successful, and also appreciated by the majority of the people after achieving a consensus by either a regional referendum, or local assemblies. The proposition to open up this business has been heavily supported by the residents. Ma took a trip to Penghu personally to show his gratitude to the support group of the gambling business.

Penghu has long been preparing for the development of gambling business’. Ma has granted Penghu’s airports access to engage in direct-cross Taiwan Straight Flight, which is set to boost Penghu’s tourism by the ability to solicit Chinese tourists from coastal areas in southern china, most importantly the Southern Fujian province. Penghu’s preparation not only includes new travel improvements, the County government has also granted permission to develop gambling business’ at four other sites in Penghu. These places include; Meijing Fengkuei vacation resort, Great Penghu International Vacation Resort, a site of Penghu Oceanic Development Co. and a four-hectare plot owned by the county government. The access granted to these four places in particular harnesses great potential for Penghu’s economic future.

Wang Chien-Kang (Penghu county Magistrate) has announced that due to Penghu’s convenient location and favourable conditions, four foreign corporations have expressed a keen interest in investments that involve Penghu’s gambling business. The area is very attractive to the four conglomerates, one of those including Malaysia’s Genting Group, because of the convenient access to Makung Airport via Charter Flights. US gambling companies are also set for involvement in Taiwan’s gambling industry. Four leading U.S business groups, MGM, Harras, SANDS, and Wynn, have provided information to the government concerning the establishment of the statute for casino management. U.S groups are also evaluation proper sites for their potential gambling business’ in Taiwan.

Taiwan to launch sports lottery in May

In order to gain proceeds that will contribute to the development of sports, and improvement of the lives of the handicapped Fubon Bank of Taipei-Taiwan are set to launch a sports lottery in May yielding an estimated NT$1.07 billion (US$354 million) in revenue for this year. Taiwan first launched a public welfare lottery in 2000 to benefit the disabled by allowing them to sell lottery tickets. However, that idea has spurred on the much larger launch of sports gambling, using the proceeds to promote sports, and also stimulate the economy.

It was said by an official just last Friday that "We will launch a sports lottery on May 2. In the initial stage, we will introduce betting on local and overseas baseball, basketball and soccer," Yang Jui-tung, vice president of the Taipei Fubon Bank, which ran the country's public welfare lottery for five years until 2006, announced in an interview with Broadcasting Corp of China. The Taipei Fubon Bank -- a subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Co., Taiwan's second-largest financial service company by market value -- won the right last September to operate the sports lottery from 2008 to 2013.

It is estimated by Yang, that Taiwan’s sports lottery will start betting on 2,000 games a year. Having said that, they need to cover at least 6,000 a year to make a considerable profit (asides from helpful proceeds). Half of Fubon Bank’s designated retailers will begin the selling of the tickets on the first day. Yang predicts that the designated retailers for the lottery tickets will have increased to 1000 by June, a large growth that may also be spurred on by the banks idea to inaugurate an online betting system mid-June.

The sports lottery will initially focus on NBA basketball and major League Baseball from the United States, local residents will be allowed to bet on local baseball games from mid-August. It was stated by Yang that they endeavor to cover a variety of sports, including; Us Baseball, basketball and European soccer games. He mentioned that because European soccer games are played Saturday evenings, not only does Taiwan have their own games to bet on those nights, but they will also cover Japanese and South Korean soccer games on that Sunday. The betting can go on for twenty-two hours a day, every day throughout the year. This is set to bring in some impressive funds, profits, and proceeds towards the governments cause to improve the lifestyle of disabled citizens in Taiwan.

Due to the cover of all the variety of games, Richard Yang predicts that the annual revenue for the sports lottery will have grown to NT$30 billion by the start of 2009. When noting the popularity of online/phone voting in Hon Kong, and Singapore, Yang says that the online system Fubon Bank plans to put in place could contribute to forty percent of the total revenue, once people figure out how to place their bets through this medium successfully. However, he doesn’t ignore the fact that retailers will still be the main source of income. He assures that the online system will not take away from the retailer’ profits. Each of the 1000 retailers is expected to generate some NT$18 million on average which is even higher than the average NT$11 Million profit posted by the bank’s precious public lottery retailers.