Here it comes. We suspected that Lot 7+8 was not the only one in the government’s sights, and Lau Si Lo, the secretary for public works, confirmed it yesterday in the legislative assembly: five other plots of land are going to have their concessions declared lapsed.

There are two important things to note here. First, WHO THE HELL ARE THESE FIVE? Any hints, Mr Secretary? No? Not like, “Five plots that have lain dormant for years and are supposed to have casinos on them”? Not like, “Five plots out of the 30 we are analyzing that are the worst offenders because of x, y, and z?” Nothing?

Okay, so we understand there is a legal process under way here and discretion is important. Which brings us to the second most important thing: it’s not the supposed owners of land with pre-development administrative approvals who are likely to lose their land next, according to Lau. It’s the owners of parcels with actual land concessions.

Now, there is no way we are going to speculate about who these five might be. All we can say is that we wonder how many of the Cotai parcels sitting idle currently have formal land concessions. We see much land there with logo-emblazoned boards around them, but do they have the land concessions? If not, they might actually be safe.

But should anyone bet on it? We can’t say for sure, but we would have to wonder what would happen if those owners were now to submit formal applications for land concessions, as Sands China did. Or perhaps they have, and we just don’t know about it. We certainly don’t know what the government is thinking about them.

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