Aug. 28, 2003 - It's time to put up or shut up for Macau government officials, Strip developer Steve Wynn said.

The semiautonomous Chinese enclave is working to finalize details for casino reforms intended to remove underworld influence over its $3 billion-plus casino market.

The changes would allow casinos to grant credit and reduce taxable gaming revenues by the amount of bad marker debt.

Those measures are thought necessary to placate Nevada gaming regulators worried about money lending and other gang activities in and around Macau casinos. The changes need to be made before Wynn and Sheldon Adelson open their planned casinos in Macau, Nevada regulators have said.

Wynn on Tuesday said he's made it clear to Macau's leaders that time is running out to approve the regulatory reforms.

"If they can't create a regulatory environment that's safe for me, I'm passing," Wynn said. "I'm 61; I don't need the money. I'm in it for fun and I'm taking the high road. If there's no high road (in Macau), I'm pulling over."

Wynn said the reforms must be enacted by year's end or Wynn Resorts will likely abandon its Macau concession and the $12 million or so he estimates he's already spent on his concession bid, design planning and corporate travel to and from Macau.

Wynn said in January that Chief Executive Edmund Ho, the top Macau government official, assured Wynn Resorts executives that the regulatory changes would happen soon.

In February, Wynn said time was getting short for the changes to be made.

Tuesday, six months later, Wynn's frustration about the pace of reform was palpable.

Macau has already approved new laws allowing casinos to grant credit, but additional changes allowing casinos to subtract a reserve for doubtful accounts from taxable casino revenue remain to be made.

Wynn said Ho's assurances that the regulatory changes would be made were his sole reason for believing his proposed Macau hotel-casino would be built.

"I don't have anything (to give me confidence) but Edmund Ho," Wynn said. "I went there (because of) Edmund Ho, and if this doesn't work out it's because Edmund Ho wasn't able to (deliver on his assurances)."

A top Macau legislator was in Las Vegas early this week meeting with Wynn and his top executives, Wynn said.

"Either do it or don't do it," Wynn said he told the legislator. Wynn said he also told he legislators that he planned to bring Wynn Resorts' entire board of directors to Macau in November.

"I'm putting terrible pressure on (Edmund Ho)," Wynn said, noting that 10,000 Macau jobs are connected to Ho's current casino operations and those jobs would likely be squeezed if new regulations allow freely available casino-offered credit.

Deutsche Banc Securities analyst Marc Falcone wrote in a recent research note that he doesn't expect Macau to make the casino regulatory changes until fall.

"With final passage likely coming this fall, groundbreaking probably won't occur until (the fourth quarter or the first quarter of 2004)," Falcone wrote.

Falcone also noted that, "depending on the final project scope," if Wynn is forced to wait that long to break ground on is Macau project, it would push the Macau opening past the expected April 2005 opening of his Wynn Las Vegas project.

The Venetian's owner, Sheldon Adelson, was out of the country Tuesday and Wednesday and unavailable to comment on the pace of Macau reform. Other executives with The Venetian didn't return phone messages.

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(c) 2003, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.