KINIBIZ In September 2006, when our neighbour across the causeway was on the way to calling for tenders to build two casinos, this Tiger, then with The Edge , had occasion to write an article titled ‘We need another casino’. Now, over seven years later, Tiger is amused to find out that it may actually materialise.

The article basically argued that as Singapore builds its two casinos, Malaysia should build its own in Johor Baru to attract Singaporean customers, in the same way that the Singapore casinos will attract Malaysian customers. Unfortunately, the link to that article no longer exists, which forces Tiger to provide some relevant extracts to give a flavour for what it is about.

Here they are: “So who will be the main customers for Singapore’s casinos? You guessed it - Malaysians; Malaysians for whom the casino at Genting may be a tad too far such as for those living in Johor Baru and its environs. For them, a hop, step and jump will take them to the Singapore casino.

“Now the important question - do we have to lose these people to Singapore? No, of course not. If we set up a casino in that new development called Danga Bay, in Johor Baru they will just go there instead of Singapore. Of course Muslims would be barred from the casino as is currently the practice at Genting.

“Now here’s the clincher. This casino will be a tourist draw for us as well. We can use it to attract tourists from all over the world - and since it is just a hop, step and jump from Singapore, we can target the tourists coming there as well by astute marketing and offering the right attractions.

“And we will give Singapore a taste of its own medicine - its not tit-for-tat - let’s just call it economics and business and tell them no hard feelings. We will attract the rich, affluent Singaporeans who can’t gamble in their own country to come over here and gamble.”

That extract about sums up the rationale for a casino in Johor Baru. So what makes Tiger think that now, just over seven years after the article was written and some years after Singapore’s two casinos are already in operation, that there will be one in Johor Baru?

For the complete article please go to KiniBiz .

This article was written by P Gunasegaram.