Chapter 89: That Time I Built a Casino in South America (4)

TL: Skye

The stakes had grown bigger.

Originally, I'd planned to build a dozen or so casino hotels with a handful of attractions on the side, something like early Las Vegas. But just as Antonio had said, I'd come to realize that casinos alone weren't enough to win, and so I'd pivoted toward a new goal, a tourist city on the scale of Dubai.

Of course, there was no aiming for a place like Dubai right out of the gate.

San Marcos didn't have money to burn the way Dubai did, and hell, even Dubai had gone and declared bankruptcy mid-construction when it couldn't weather the subprime crisis.

Still.

"If we pull in a good number of tourists as planned and word gets out that the margins are solid, we can expect investors looking to build hotels to come running with cash in hand."

I was aiming for a virtuous cycle.

Draw in the crowds, turn a healthy profit, and facilities like hotels, resorts, and clubs were bound to spring up, which in turn would lead to the expansion of the city.

In other words, I was planting a seed of sorts.

Devising the strategy and gathering the investors for all this would fall to Antonio, while the administrative support I'd entrusted to Resa's Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.

"Has Antonio left the country?"

"Yes. He said there were people who might be interested and headed for the airport the moment the sun came up."

"Let's hope the results are good."

"He's exceptionally capable and well connected. And he grasps the vision for this project perfectly. I believe we have more than a fighting chance."

"Director Lucio recommended the right man, then."

"Yes, he appears to be a first-rate choice."

And so, after Antonio had departed, Resa and I set about laying the foundations of the city that was to be built.

Putting up buildings was something money and time would take care of, but building the systems to fill them was a job for people, and people alone.

Especially for a city with gambling baked into it, without firm controls in place the fallout was sure to spread across the entire country.

Seated across from Resa in my office, I twirled my pen as I spoke.

"Let's nail down the principles first. The casinos are strictly a means of earning foreign currency. I have not the slightest intention of picking our own citizens' pockets."

"I agree, Your Excellency. If gambling addiction spreads into a social problem, it's a hard thing to clean up."

"That's why we'll pass a law. Have IDs checked at the casino entrances and bar anyone holding San Marcos citizenship from entering outright. No exceptions for anyone, myself included."

A so-called ban on domestic citizens' entry.

I had no intention of repeating Kangwon Land's failure. [TL: Kangwon Land is the only casino in South Korea open to Korean nationals and is notorious for problem gambling.]

"Understood. And we'll need to sort out the employment question as well."

Resa said, flipping through her documents.

"Running the hotels and resorts is going to take an enormous workforce..."

"Not the casino floor."

I drew a firm line.

"Tell the casinos that dealers, servers, and everyone up to floor-manager level are to be filled entirely with experienced foreign hires. It'd be better to import people from the Philippines or Macau who speak fluent English."

"To protect our citizens?"

"In Korea we have a saying, covetousness at the sight of things. Stare at a gambling table every single day and eventually you'll want to lay your hands on those chips. Better to cut off access entirely."

"Then the rest, the hotel service staff apart from the floor, cleaning, kitchen, security, and so on..."

"San Marcos nationals get priority, no exceptions. Lock in a minimum quota of sixty percent. That's how our people will actually see the benefits."

A hotel where tips are floating around is good work, not backbreaking and capable of bringing in high pay.

There was no way I'd ladle out the honey of a city I'd busted my ass to build to foreigners instead of my own people.

"Understood. I'll keep it firmly in mind."

Resa nodded, then hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth carefully.

"Your Excellency, and... there's one more thing I'm concerned about."

"Let's hear it."

"Once the casinos and hotels move in, inevitably... a nightlife scene is bound to follow."

"By nightlife... you mean prostitution."

Resa flinched at my blunt choice of words, but soon nodded.

"Yes. Once the city goes up, a sex trade catering to the tourists is going to run rampant."

"......"

I fell silent for a moment.

East or West, from antiquity to the present, one of the oldest professions of all was prostitution.

San Marcos might have designated prostitution illegal and clamped down on it for now, but supply arising wherever there's demand was simply how markets worked.

It wasn't the kind of problem that could be stopped just by trying to stop it.

"Should we designate a special district and legalize it outright? The way the Netherlands or Germany do, collecting taxes and regulating it?"

I shook my head at Resa's radical proposal.

"No. We can't do that."

It wasn't that I was trying to hold up some moral yardstick.

After all, legal markets for prostitution existed all over Europe as it was.

But San Marcos's situation was different.

'It's the image that's the problem. The image.'

We'd only just paid off our old debts and started scrubbing the national brand toward something wholesome, and the instant a "paradise for vice tourism" label got slapped on us, forget being Latin America's flagship destination, we'd be branded the next Southeast Asia.

Image aside, though, the bigger problem was the drain on the labor force.

'If the young workers who ought to be putting in honest hours at the factories and the farms get siphoned off into that trade, it's a loss for the whole country.'

Once people got a taste of easy money, no one would want to work up a sweat anymore.

For a developing nation that had only just kicked its economic development into gear, that was a fatal blow.

'Can't have that.'

In the end, at the crossroads between individual freedom and state control, I made my decision.

"Prostitution will be banned. I will never tolerate our citizens selling their bodies. Anyone caught, come down on them hard."

"In that case it'll just slink off into the shadows, won't it?"

"Prostitution is illegal in world-class destinations like Dubai and Hawaii, too. Let's declare it illegal publicly and crack down as hard as we can."

Of course, even so, those who'll do it will do it.

Maybe foreigners coming in from Venezuela or Brazil would end up working the trade.

But still.

'Where in the world is there a perfect law?'

Laws, after all, were things that shifted with the times.

"For now let's go with that, and decide the rest as we watch how things play out."

I meant to take my time, watch, and adjust as I went.

"Yes, understood."

Resa nodded and jotted it down in her notebook.

"Good. Then let's look at the hardware side."

I looked down at the map and asked.

"How's construction on the golf course coming along?"

"Groundwork has begun. Right now Tortilla Construction is drawing up the blueprints with consulting from Hyunhwa Resort & Golf."

Minsik seemed to be doing the job properly, which pleased me.

'But why, with talent like that, does the guy do nothing but chase after Isabella?'

Truly a fellow I couldn't understand.

"I hear you're looking to buy a cruise ship?"

"Yes, we're currently sourcing a used cruise ship in the hundred-thousand-ton-plus class. Whether to lease or buy, we'll decide after inspecting the vessel. That said, since buying would run at least eight hundred million dollars, we'd rather lease if we reasonably can."

"Used, huh... Leasing does seem the safer bet. How's the road construction going?"

Resa explained, tracing her finger across the map.

"Yes. Tortilla Construction is working around the clock. They've started connecting the expressway running from the airport with the access road leading to the future city site. If it all goes to plan, once it's finished, visitors will be able to arrive within thirty minutes of the airport. We're planning to run shuttle buses, too."

"Thirty minutes is just right, no time to get bored."

Secure accessibility on top of everything else, and the odds of success climbed a great deal higher.

I was nodding in satisfaction when Resa asked, in a coy voice.

"By the way... Your Excellency."

"Yes?"

"I think it's about time we named the city. We can't very well keep calling it 'the site' or 'the eastern new city' forever."

"Ah, I'd forgotten something important."

Now that I thought about it, we needed a brand name that encompassed the whole city.

The kind of name that quickened the pulse the moment one heard it, like Las Vegas or Cancún.

"We should name it. Any good ideas?"

"Not yet."

Resa said, shaking her head.

"Which is why... I was thinking of holding a contest within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism."

"A contest?"

"Yes. If a name someone came up with themselves gets chosen, they'll feel attached to it, and I thought it might draw out better ideas, too."

It wasn't a bad idea.

Naming it myself would be fine, but put a few heads together and something more inventive might come out of it.

"Go ahead. It's a city they'll be building themselves, so there'd be some meaning in them naming it, too."

I thought for a moment, then added.

"Actually, no. Just doing it flat would be boring, so let's put up some prize money."

"Prize money?"

"Something modest, say a thousand dollars? I'll hand it to the winner personally, so tell them to put their brains to good use."

"The amount is one thing, but receiving prize money from you, Your Excellency, I think they'd count that the honor of a lifetime."

"Come on, it's just prize money."

Laughing, I sent Resa on her way.

But.

At the time, I hadn't the faintest idea.

Just what kind of horrifying mongrel gets born when civil servants dosed with an overdose of loyalty are the ones doing the naming.

That the name of this city, one day to be called the Emerald of Latin America, would end up as Choi City, entirely against my will, I never dreamed in a thousand years.

***

Meanwhile, in the United States, at the very hour Yu-jin sat in conference with Resa.

Antonio Carvalho was tearing across the length and breadth of America, here one minute and there the next.

In his hands he held just two sheets of paper, the full power of attorney to court investors that Yu-jin had personally signed and a rendering of the Drump Hotel. But, certain of his success, he went from investor to investor, peddling his pitch.

"Folks, let's be honest with each other. Taxes... aren't you sick to death of them? Earn a thousand dollars and you've got to be robbed of half at most, a quarter at least, haven't you? Which is why I've prepared something for you. The chance to invest in San Marcos, a paradise on earth just two hours away by plane. Start with the tax breaks, and they're nothing short of radical. Not only do you get a full tax deduction on your entire initial investment, you can take out low-interest loans from Tortilla Bank, plus corporate and personal income tax reductions for five years after operations begin, and... cough, cough. Ahem. Let me just have a glass of water and pick up where I left off."

"......"

"And do you think it stops at taxes? Just look here at how gorgeous the scenery is. This is a photo with zero touch-ups. Kyaaah, isn't it a killer? Right here is where we build the hotels and resorts. Further in, the casino hotels. Oh, and over on this side, Latin America's largest golf course is slated to go up, and it's beautiful beyond words. On top of that, we plan to run a regular cruise line departing from Florida, and... hmm? Why the long faces, everyone?"

Watching the investors stay indifferent despite his impassioned spiel, he spoke slowly.

"Looks like you still haven't quite grasped how all this works. If I may show you proof of just how big an opportunity this is..."

Antonio unfurled the rendering with the Drump Hotel & Resort drawn across it.

"D-Drump?!"

At the weight of Drump's name, the investors began to show interest.

"Well? Feeling a bit more interested now?"

Antonio rubbed his hands together with a sly little smile.

*****

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