Bizcuits | Crowned rogue

Leanda Lee

Australians have a fondness for rogues. Tomes have been written about the Aussie finger-flick at authority. Our naughtiness is generally transparent, with a wink and a nod, even bared bottoms, and a savoir faire of a teenage boy just finding his stature. Don’t get me wrong, we’re a law-abiding citizenry: there’s incredible community pressure to comply (drive like we do in Macau on the streets Downunder and the storm of impatience will weigh heavily upon you).  We have little tolerance for contextualised games and subterfuge. We stand up to laws that don’t protect the little guy and see chinks in administrative armour when regulations aren’t implemented by laissez-faire authorities.
Unfortunately, the Aussie battler’s principled view of legal compliance and a healthy ambivalence towards authority does not translate well elsewhere. We trust too much that we will be protected, and if the prevailing mode is to turn a blind-eye to illegal activities, we believe that authorities will forewarn change. Often, we’re just a little too brazen.
Australians are increasingly getting into trouble abroad. DFAT noted in the Consular State of Play 2015-16 report that they assisted 1,551 people arrested overseas (up 23 percent), and Macau, you’ve just helped add to that with last week’s detentions in China of 18 Crown Casino employees, including three Australians.
Aussies are a little protective of the way our people are treated and naively believe that the odds of a fair trial are good. Cross-border judicial cases such as Schapelle Corby’s Indonesian drug trafficking indictment, the execution of two members of the Bali Nine last year, Sara Connor currently awaiting trial over the death of an Indonesian policeman and the antics of the nine “Budgy Smugglers” at the Malaysian Grand Prix earlier this month are fodder for classroom discussion and talk-back radio outrage.
Foreign businesses may believe they understand how it works in China but even Australian government officials agree that although you may think you know the lay of the land, the game changes with the politics of the day. Three Australian executives being held in Shanghai has Australia searching for explanations.  However, this time, it’s more than an Australian problem – the detainees’ foreignness and seniority seems “designed for maximum attention and maximum damage”.
Australian Casinos have been courting Chinese players more aggressively since the gates to Macau have been monitored more rigorously. David Fickling’s (Bloomberg) question “When Australia sneezes does Macau catch a cold?” pointedly ridicules any concerns of longer term effects on Macau’s gaming industry. The truth is that Macau’s already caught a cold that’s put it to bed with a hot toddy and the fun has been moving to someone else’s place. The control of capital and players across Macau’s border has been a boon for Australia’s gaming industry as elsewhere in the region, regardless of Beijing’s warnings that the crackdown is not limited to the Macau-bound.
The detentions’ impact has been substantial. James Packer’s wealth alone tumbled half a billion on Monday after the news of the arrests had sunk in over the weekend. Crown’s plans for restructure and ability to raise funds for expansion has been further compromised by its interconnected businesses.  One would be hard pressed to support some analysts’ views that this is unlikely to hurt Macau gaming stocks and VIP revenue beyond the short-term. I note that interests of “independent” analysts and tame journalists lie in helping support share prices of their patrons in gaming even as China-based marketing activity and debt collection is curtailed and VIP client details are potentially compromised.
We are complicit in this grey area of gaming. Macau government coffers, real-estate investors, casino stakeholders and employees; we have all bought into a culture of acceptance, for the risk/return equation was on our side. To date the heavy hand of the law has been felt but as a slow vice upon the Chinese-based VIP business model that built Macau. As some analysts continue to play down this pressure, they and the rest of us that sit on our pedestals of Rolls Royce judicial systems stand culpable. Are we listening yet?