Organised crime a threat to Asia's gaming industry!

SINGAPORE : Organised crime remains a threat to Asia's burgeoning gaming industry and a zero-tolerance approach is needed to keep it out, a risk expert said Tuesday.

Stephen Vickers, president and chief executive officer of International Risk in Hong Kong, said triads and organised crime syndicates have not completely disappeared despite stiff enforcement measures.

"There is a long history of triad and organised crime and penetration of gambling especially in Macau and Southeast Asia," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Asian Casinos Executive Summit.

"Those people have not all died and gone away and gone into some legitimate business... they are still out there somewhere so we have to be realistic about what we are doing."

Vickers said money-laundering must not be tolerated.

"The way it can be dealt with is a zero-tolerance policy by all the gambling operators to exclude these people," said Vickers, who has spent 31 years working in Asia.

"It's easy to let them in, in the short-term. It's just less headache but in the longer term it will result in even more trouble and now is a golden opportunity for a paradigm shift in the way these things operate."

He said he is encouraged by the huge strides the Chinese enclave of Macau has made to keep organised crime syndicates and triads off its booming casino industry by way of tighter legislation.

The former Portuguese territory opened up its gaming sector to allow more operators four years ago.

But the territory, seen as Asia's Las Vegas, must continue to stay vigilant, he said.

"Overall I am positive about Macau. I think there's vast potential provided we don't ignore the elephant in the room and the elephant in the room is the history that has gone on, and which has not yet completely disappeared," he said.

Singapore's reputation for good governance will be reflected in the way its gaming industry is managed, Vickers said.

"Singapore will undoubtedly run a super-clean integrated resort," he said, while cautioning that the city-state "is an island surrounded by other countries which don't have the same standards."

The key to regulation will be to look not just in Singapore but "to keep looking from 36,000 feet down at this industry to make sure that we are excluding the worst elements..." - AFP/ch - Posted: 25 July 2006