Here we go again . .  .  maybe.  Remember when the level of high-end Asian business in Las Vegas plummeted following the events of 9/11, events that included the Great Anthrax Scare.

As MGM Chairman Terry Lanni explained then, wealthy Asians are, as a group, very security conscious . . .  very cautious. They looked with alarm at the newspaper headlines that told of white powder turning up here and there.

Not that any of it ever reached Las Vegas where gamblers from the Far East have long been  accustomed to making the kind of lay-downs that can help make a quarter. But they saw no reason to take a  chance. Better to stay close to home for a while. It was months before business as usual returned to Las Vegas.

Times have changed during the last five years and I wonder if it won’t be easier to rationalize decisions to avoid the security hassles and not take a chance.

Asian gamblers now have a little bit of Las Vegas closer than ever to their collective front doors, what with the presence of Sheldon Adelson’s Macau casino and the opening of Wynn Macau just a couple  weeks away.

MGM Chairman Terry Lanni was recently talking about the steady increase in business from China. Visas have been more available.

And of course, MGM will also soon be opening in Macau, a bit more than a year down the road, just in time perhaps for the next big scare that will have Chinese gamblers postponing their Las Vegas trips.

No one is saying anything yet about a fall-off in Las Vegas business from the Far East as of several days ago. Maybe it won’t play out the same way this time, but it is easy to imagine MGM Mirage bosses holding their collective breaths, waiting to see.