Casino and hotel magnate Steve Wynn has lined up a business partner in Mexico with an eye on the impending legalisation of gambling in that country.
Wynn plans to go to Mexico in January to scout locations. His prospective business partner is Alberto Santos, a wealthy Mexican businessman and former senator.
Besides his casino/hotel developments in Nevada and Macau and his interest in Mexico, Wynn has also recently explored gambling opportunities in Maryland.
Wynn expects that the final version of a bill legalizing gambling won’t permit casinos in most areas, including Mexico City, but would reserve them for tourist areas such as Acapulco, Tijuana, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.
Many Mexican hoteliers support the bill – which would stipulate that hotels are operated separately from the gambling halls.
The five largest parties in Mexico’s house of congress have already agreed to approve the law before Dec. 15. Most of the bills approved in commission are voted into law.
Casinos are expected to boost Mexico’s tourism industry, which already brings in $8 billion a year from foreign visitors. Mexico’s tourism chamber estimates that 40 Togel Singapore casinos would generate at least $3 billion in sales and create 200,000 jobs.
Job losses blamed on smoke ban
SMOKING bans at Crown casino have been blamed for the shock axing of more than 100 jobs.
Crown bosses yesterday informed their 8000-strong workforce they would slash staff numbers on the eve of Christmas because of a “severe” fall in gambling profits.
Smoke-free regulations were enforced at the casino and the state’s 534 pokies venues on September 1 this year – triggering an immediate decline in revenue.
While Crown yesterday refused to disclose figures, the Herald Sun has been told the bans will slice more than $20 million a year from casino earnings.
Total gaming industry profits are tipped to drop by $400 million next year, and the Bracks Government is expected to lose $125 million in taxes.
Crown spokesman Gary O’Neill said punter numbers at Crown had dropped significantly since the bans.
“There’s no other reason for it other than the smoking bans,” he said.
“There just aren’t enough people coming through the door to justify the number of staff we have at the moment.”
He said the casino received thousands of complaints a week from disgruntled patrons about the smoking restrictions.
Earlier this week pokies giant Tabcorp blamed a hefty fall in its share price on the introduction of smoke-free gaming.
But the union representing casino workers claimed Crown had announced the redundancies to scare casino workers pushing for wage increases.
“We don’t think the impact of the smoking bans warrants these sort of job cuts,” Liquor Hospitality Miscellaneous Workers Union secretary Brian Daley said.
However, Clubs Victoria boss Mag Kearney said the smoking legislation had cost more than 200 club jobs across the state since September 1.
“The situation is only getting worse . . . many of our clubs are facing closure,” Ms Kearney said.
“This is supposed to be our busiest trading period of the year but turnover continues to fall.”
She said the crisis would be compounded by government plans to outlaw all pokies advertising in 2003.
Australian Hotels Association chief executive Alan Giles said 250 hotel jobs had been been lost and another 500 were under immediate threat.
“Those jobs could go after Christmas if things haven’t improved and it’s certainly showing no sign of that,” Mr Giles said.
Crown said the impact of the smoking bans had been far greater than the Government anticipated and did not rule out the loss of more jobs.
