Tan fights for a casino permit in Malaysia

The casino billionaire and Berjaya Group founder wants to submit an application to operate a casino in Malaysia.

Malaysia.- Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who quit his position of chairman of Berjaya Corp Bhd back in 2012, said that he might apply for a license to operate a casino in Malaysia in order to “end the monopoly of Genting Malaysia Bhd.

According to Tan, the Asian country should have more than just one casino operated by more than one party in order to boost tourism. A second casino operated by a different company could generate more income for the local government and accelerate growing sectors, such as tourism and hospitality.

This isn’t the first time that Tan requests a license, as he already applied 13 years ago to be the operator at Berjaya Hills Resort in Pahang and got rejected. “The government should give us the licence as we are investing and creating jobs for the people. Why give Genting the monopoly for 50 to 60 years? We are in the lottery business and we never had a monopoly. The pie for the casino business is big enough for us to share,” he said.