RWS: Appeal to their superstitious nature

Many moons ago, I flippantly posted this when RWS was facing a spot of bad luck when it opened. Well it soon ran into a spell of gd luck that even the deaths of two dolphins and the relocation of the rest of the dolphins to a secret location in the Philippines did not break.

But then RWS ran into problems with the government and had to pay fines. Then gaming revenues declined. The government has yet to release its guidelines on the licensing of junket operators. This means that Genting will not be able to tap the full potential of the high roller market, as its business model for this market depends on junket operators. Then a few days after the official opening of the theme park, the aircons went out.

Maybe the dead dolphins have cursed RWS. Rather than appeal to the scruples of RWS’ Malaysian Chinese controlling owners and managers, dolphin huggers, swimmers and lovers should appeal to the superstitious side of these Malaysian Chinese. I’m sure there are credible shamans, Feng Shui persons and witch doctors prepared to say, “Free the dolphins and gd Karma will follow”.

Meanwhile give the shares a miss.

Freeing Flipper: Try govmin

I agree that dolphins should not be held captive and made to perform for another species.

But the appeals to RWS are misplaced. I’m sure RWS would like nothing better than to be rid of the Flipper controversy. Not gd for business. It’s in the entertainment business and bad publicity is terrible for business.

The problem is that it won the bid to build the casino and ancillary attractions because it was the only bidder that was prepared to catch Flipper and make him dance. The other bidders, perhaps having more moral scruples, did not include dolphins. Or maybe only M’sian Chinese have no scruples when it comes to dolphins?

RWS won because of the promise to catch Flipper and make him perform. The government is holding RWS to its promise on Flipper. It cannot do otherwise. If it released RWS from its obligation to have Flipper perform, it risks being sued by the losing bidders, and tarnishing S’pore’s reputation as a place where the rule of law prevails.

The only way out is for the government to impose a very large fine (a few hundred million dollars?) as punishment for RWS not meeting its obligations on Flipper. The fine has to be huge to avoid the losing bidders suing the government. RWS has to feel the financial pain of including Flipper (against his will) in its bid.

In that case there would be more reason to sell RWS shares.