Johor MB Mohamed Khaled said there is absolutely no truths in reports about JB having a casino. The reports in a few online portals are mischievous. Nevertheless he admitted that the approval is not for state to decide but it’s from the federal government. He completed his views on casino by saying that even if the federal government approves such a project, the state will object to it. This is indeed a very interesting piece of comment indeed. The state to object even if the federal government approves it.
Almost all of my friends said that a casino would mean Iskandar will boom even more, even faster. Actually if we seriously think about it, yes perhaps but a casino would mean huge investments are needed. We are not talking about having just a few slot machines and we call it as casino. Would the casino players be interested with the third casino within two other huge ones in Singapore? Actually I seriously doubt so. I think the investment would need many years to break-even BUT if the casino developer is building the casino only as part of its huge integrated development, then yes it should be very doable. I may not be able to afford but I am very sure a lot of investors would love to buy a unit in such a development. Just look at what happens to the price per sf when the condo is nearby a huge and successful departmental store here in Malaysia. Of even condos with ‘KLCC view’. Sorry, I have never bought properties based on views but a lot of people do. So, it’s worth investing.
If you ask me, would I want a casino to be built? Let me follow the example of what Singapore did. How about opening a casino but disallowing any Johorean from visiting the casino? Let the Johoreans who must visit a casino go over to Singapore. Meanwhile, the promotion may now start to attract Singaporeans over. Do not reinvent the wheel, do as per what the two casinos in Singapore is doing; arrange transport to and fro for the interested people, launch promotions. So, the answer is Yes, if the state of Johor allows it to be built. If the state of Johor says no, it is ok, let’s continue doing all the other world class theme parks, world class universities, world class hospitals etc to attract more investments. 🙂
Hey, Iskandar does not end without a casino, ok.
written on 4 Jan 2014
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