Chapter 86: That Time I Built a Casino in South America

TL: Skye

Once electricity was being produced in earnest, Libertad's nightscape had turned truly beautiful.

The once pitch-black city was awash in every color now, and the bright streetlamps were like scattered starlight.

As the streets lit up, people began moving about freely.

'Now it finally looks like a place where actual human beings live.'

Looking down over the scene from the window of the Presidential Office, I couldn't help the swell of excitement.

Of course.

"This is only the beginning, though."

Just because we were cranking out some electricity didn't mean San Marcos would turn into a developed nation all on its own.

All we'd done was finish the groundwork.

My goal was clear.

Somehow drag San Marcos into the ranks of Latin America's developed nations within this term, then step down while the applause was still ringing and settle into a lavish retirement.

For that, I needed money.

A whole lot of money.

And so, the next morning.

I convened the Cabinet meeting and said.

"I'm opening the second chapter of the Six-Year Economic Development Plan."

The Senior Secretaries swallowed dryly and fixed their attention on me.

In truth, they didn't know the exact scale or sequence, but the Senior Secretaries had a rough sense of what was coming.

After all, they'd seen the broad strokes back when I first announced the Six-Year Economic Development Plan.

Meeting their gazes, I pointed my longsword at the eastern coastline of Libertad marked out on the map.

A spot thirty kilometers from Libertad.

In Korean terms, roughly the distance from Yongsan at the heart of Seoul out to Paju, a place where a truly gorgeous stretch of coast had settled.

It was also the site where the Drump Resort and Casino Hotel would rise.

"I intend to develop this area."

Why develop here, rather than the north, which was closer to the US?

'Stretching infrastructure all the way up there would be too much of a headache.'

Because extending the infrastructure, roads, electricity, hospitals, all of it, that far north would be too heavy a burden.

"What sort of development do you have in mind?"

"It's simple."

I answered Isabella's question.

"I'm thinking of building an entertainment city to rival Las Vegas."

"...Excuse me?"

Silence fell over the meeting room.

The first to react was, naturally, Isabella, the one I'd been talking with.

"Your Excellency, surely you don't mean... you intend to legalize gambling?"

She cut in, sharp and firm.

"I'm against it. Since your arrival you've only just managed to instill some work ethic in the people. Legalize gambling, and they'll degenerate into addicts. And that will soon become an enormous burden on the state."

The other Senior Secretaries nodded with worried expressions and piled on.

"Household finances are only just recovering. At the very moment the habit of saving through the Tortilla Bank is taking root, we're talking about gambling? Fueling that kind of speculation is a poison that shakes sound economic sense loose at the roots."

Starting with Ricardo, the Senior Secretary for Finance.

"We can't overlook the matter of public safety either, Your Excellency. Gambling dens inevitably draw in the sorts who deal in loan sharking, drugs, prostitution, money laundering. Massive foreign crime syndicates could come crawling in, using the casino as their host."

Director Lucio.

"Your Excellency, the machines in the factories have only just started turning. The workers are coming to know the sacred joy of honest labor. But if we plant in their heads the fantasy that they can make big money without lifting a finger, who's going to bother tightening bolts on the factory floor?"

Aman, the Senior Secretary for Industry.

"It's a fine way to attract tourists, true, but if public safety falls apart it could backfire on us instead."

And last of all Resa, the Senior Secretary for Natural Resources and Tourism, until every last one of them had voiced opposition.

Honestly, they weren't wrong.

Just looking at Korea, the damage gambling did there was staggering.

Take Kangwon Land alone, hadn't it churned out an absurd number of people who'd gambled their families and their good names straight into ruin?

But.

'Can't scrap the whole batch of stew just because a few maggots might crawl in.'

Besides, I'd already put a few safeguards in place.

"I'm not saying we legalize gambling."

"Excuse me?"

"What I'm proposing to build is a foreigners-only casino. Locals will be strictly barred from entry."

A foreigners-only casino, that was the plan.

Kangwon Land just happens to be the famous one, but even Korea had several foreigners-only casinos, didn't it? [TL: Kangwon Land is the only casino in South Korea that admits Korean nationals; all the others are open to foreigners only.]

"And if we do it that way... will it actually draw crowds?"

"It will draw crowds."

"......"

"Geographically, we're sitting in an excellent position. We're close enough to the US that you could cross by small boat, and from anywhere in South America it's a two-hour flight. And of all of it, the nearest landmass is right here, Florida, the wealthiest state in America."

I raised my longsword and leveled it at Florida.

"We'll have the super-rich sail in on their yachts every weekend, spin the roulette wheel, and throw their dollars around like water. All we have to do is sweep up every last dollar they drop. How does that sound?"

At this flawless logic, the Senior Secretaries' faces lit up.

"As expected of you, Your Excellency!"

"It'll create jobs, too!"

"The first thing we'll need to do is clear the site."

I nodded at Isabella's words.

"That's right. Before we get to work in earnest, we have to clear the site first."

San Marcos's real estate system was a bit peculiar.

Thanks to former President Juan, who'd soaked up a heavy dose of Soviet influence, in principle every last plot of land belonged to the state.

Instead, citizens bought land lease rights from the state and traded usage rights in twenty-, fifty-, and hundred-year terms.

Because of that, up to now there'd been almost no headaches over expropriation compensation.

If the state needed land, it simply pulled back the lease rights and handed over lease rights of equivalent value, and that was that.

Above all. The eastern coast was a region of nothing but white sand and trees, so barely any lease rights had ever gone out there.

Of course.

"There must be no grumbling raised over the land, on the off chance. Proceed by giving the people living in that area ample compensation and reclaiming the site."

I couldn't have anyone walking away feeling cheated, after all.

"Senior Secretary Resa will take full charge of this matter, and the rest of you, please give her your best support."

"Yes! Understood!"

To the Senior Secretaries' spirited reply, the day's Cabinet meeting came to a close.

*

It goes without saying, but a tourist city isn't built out of land alone.

Even granting that guests could be lured in through marketing, it would take enormous investment capital, of course, and an actual operator to run the casinos and hotels.

Even Las Vegas over in the US was run exactly that way.

"...In the end, it comes down to money."

The funds raised through issuing government bonds had been invested via the Beast's Heart, leaving the treasury comfortably full, but if I blew it all building a city, I'd have nothing left to fund the next phase of the Six-Year Economic Development Plan.

I could always print more government bonds, of course, but...

'The risk's just too high.'

Take on debt to build a city, then fail to recoup it?

That would be a full-blown national default.

'Can't exactly go calling the IMF down here in San Marcos.'

And naturally, my retirement plan would go up in smoke right along with it.

Which led me to a single conclusion.

"We have to make them invest."

Attracting foreign capital.

"The national budget goes toward infrastructure only, roads and port facilities and the like. The full cost of building the hotels and casinos will be covered entirely by private investment."

Isabella and Lucio nodded.

"You mean to bring in foreign capital?"

"That's right. Naturally, I've no intention of taking just anyone. We need to reel in the real heavy hitters. Someone with plenty of experience, from the Las Vegas side, would be even better."

Lucio gave a small shake of his head.

"That won't be possible from their end. If we build a city built around casinos, it means a competitor sprouts up right in their backyard, so I can't see them lending us a hand. They might even collude to shut the investment down entirely."

He wasn't wrong.

Nobody throws money at their own competition, after all.

"Is there no way around it?"

"We'd need a broker who knows that world well and can draw the investment out. And more than that, it has to be someone with enough clout to stand toe-to-toe with the Las Vegas powers. No one steps up when their life's on the line otherwise."

"Their life, even? Las Vegas is run by legitimate corporations, isn't it?"

"Because inside legitimate corporations, there can be some decidedly illegitimate people."

"Hmm... this isn't going to be easy."

Just as I was feeling rather stuck, Lucio spoke quietly.

"...There is one person who comes to mind."

"Who?"

"My cousin."

"Your cousin... the one who runs a casino down in Florida?"

"That's right. I'd meant not to put a relative forward for public work, but as things stand I don't see another option, so here I am mentioning him."

"When it's a matter of brightening the nation's future, what does it matter if he's a relative? As long as he has the ability, it makes no difference. It's fine, tell me what sort of man he is."

At my words, Lucio paused a moment, then carefully opened his mouth.

"His name is Antonio Carvalho. Fifty-two this year. When we were young, the two of us boarded an immigrant ship together and crossed over to Florida. Afterward I came back, but Antonio stayed behind, saying he'd make his fortune. And... he truly made it big."

"How did he succeed?"

"He's the owner of the Gold Brown Casino Hotel in Miami, Florida."

"He really did make it big."

"He made it, yes, but the road there was anything but smooth. He started with nothing but his bare fists and clawed his way up from the very bottom. I've heard there was a great deal that happened along the way."

"Is that so?"

"More than any of that, though, this isn't the only reason I'm recommending him."

Lucio answered with a nod.

"Within Florida, Antonio is known as the godfather of the San Marcos immigrant community."

"The... godfather?"

At a word I'd heard far too many times somewhere before, my brow furrowed of its own accord.

"Yes. When immigrants are wronged or in need of money, Antonio is the first person they turn to. As a result his connections run deep, in local politics and beyond. He's got dozens of men under him, too."

"Hold on."

So the man was basically a mob boss.

"...So what you're telling me, Director Lucio, is that this man has the muscle to fend off Las Vegas's territorial pushback and interference."

"That's right. Antonio has the backbone to negotiate with the Las Vegas heavy hitters, or to weather their pressure. I've heard he's been through all manner of rough business to get where he is today."

"...I, I see."

I mulled it over for a moment.

For starters, this Antonio was, with 100 percent certainty, the head of a gang.

Slotting a man like that into a national project carried no small amount of risk.

On the other hand, it was precisely because he was that kind of man that he might be able to play the broker.

To take on wolves, our side needed a vicious hunting dog of our own, after all.

Besides, if he was Lucio's cousin, there'd be no worrying about betrayal.

Above all.

'I like that he's got the résumé.'

Since he was actually running a casino hotel, he could turn out to be an enormous help.

'Right, this is no time to be picky, beggars can't be choosers.'

And so, after a brief deliberation, I gave my answer.

"Could I... meet him once?"

"I'll reach out to him at once."

*****

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