MGM China is working hard to cement its position in Thailand’s growing gaming industry, said William Hornbuckle, CEO and president of MGM Resorts International.
In MGM’s recent Q2 earnings call, Hornbuckle said, “Pansy Ho and I will be visiting Thailand next month to explore this opportunity.”
“We are interested in this project. If we pursue it, it will be through MGM China Holdings,” he said.
The casino operator’s plans to enter Thailand’s $15.1 billion casino market were widely discussed in June.
Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said he had already met with Pansy Ho, Chairman and Executive director of MGM China.
The Southeast Asian country could open its first “entertainment complex” in five years, according to brokerage CLSA, and impose a 17% tax on gambling.
That comes a year before MGM Osaka, another MGM project in partnership with Japanese consumer finance company Orix, plans to loan about US$3.4 billion.
Casinos are currently banned in Thailand, and legal gambling is limited to state-controlled horse racing and lotteries.
However, illegal activities, including football betting, underground casinos and unregulated lotteries, are widespread.
The popular Southeast Asian tourist attraction has already set a target of attracting at least 40 million international visitors by 2024 — almost the same as before the pandemic — and half of that target has already been achieved in the first seven months of the year.
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