# Macau...Rising as Asia's Casino Capital



## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

Posted on Sat, Feb. 18, 2006
TOURISM
Macau rising as Asia's casino capital
BY TIM JOHNSON
Knight Ridder News Service
MACAU - Once a backwater for hardcore gamblers, the former Portuguese colony of Macau is rising fast as Asia's entertainment and casino capital.

Some now call Macau the ''Las Vegas of the East,'' and Macau's gaming revenues are on par with those of the Las Vegas Strip.

Macau, however, is growing even faster than Las Vegas. It's on the threshold of a gaming boom, with more than a dozen casinos and resorts on the drawing boards or under construction, the result of a 2001 decision to open its doors to foreign casino operators. Two years later, mainland authorities agreed to let visitors cross the border more freely.

Macau's first U.S.-operated casino, the Sands Macau, opened in 2004. This autumn, a second U.S. casino and 600-room hotel, Wynn Resorts Macau, will debut. The $1 billion MGM Grand Macau will follow in 2007. The U.S. operators are bringing panache and entertainment, and they hope to turn Macau into a hot convention destination.

Macau drew 18.7 million tourists last year, more than the country of Germany, and plans to lure 35 million a year by the end of the decade, about what Las Vegas gets now.

''It is on the cusp of getting launched,'' said David J. Green, the director of gaming practice in Macau for the accounting and consulting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Macau, a port established 450 years ago by Portuguese traders and Catholic missionaries, has long been overshadowed by Hong Kong, the former British colony that's an hour-long ferry ride to the east. Producing little revenue of its own, tiny Macau legalized gambling in 1847.

In the decade before Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999, the enclave was plagued by casino-linked gangs avenging debts with daylight killings.

Macau's monopolycontrolled casinos, run for decades by Hong Kong gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, were havens for VIPs in smoke-filled rooms. Signs reminded gamblers not to spit on the floor. Most customers came from Hong Kong. A few trickled in from China.

A series of factors after Macau's 1999 handover to China led to the boom. The liberalization of the casino sector coincided with a crippling SARS epidemic in southern China in 2003. To help Hong Kong's suffering economy, mainland authorities relaxed travel restrictions to Hong Kong and Macau. Chinese began to flood across the border. Casinos are illegal on the mainland, yet China's 1.3 billion citizens itch to get rich quickly and travel outside traditional borders.

''The mass market has really exploded here. More and more people in their mid-20s and mid-30s are coming in . . . even for the day,'' said Kareem Jalal, the editor of Inside Asian Gaming, a new Macau-based magazine. ``There's a lot of untapped wealth.''

Sleaze and crime ebbed. Macau beefed up its police force to 7,000 officers in a territory with 482,000 residents.

Last year, the United Nations awarded Macau -- with its East-meets-West merger of cultures, unique cuisine, colonial churches and black-and-white mosaic walkways -- a coveted designation as a World Heritage Site.

Tiny Macau comprises two islands and a peninsula -- less than 11 square miles. Its leaders have prepared for the boom by reclaiming the shallow sea between the islands of Coloane and Taipa to create new land, the Cotai Strip, which soon will emulate the one in Las Vegas.

The sprawling 3,000-room Venetian Macau resort and convention center will open next year, anchoring a promenade of resorts and casinos. The strip eventually may accommodate 20 new casinos and resorts, employing 50,000 workers.

'The target is that once all of Cotai is built in about 10 years' time, there will be 60,000 more hotel rooms,'' said Buddy Lam, a Sands Macau spokesman.

There are 11,042 rooms now, a sign that Macau is outpacing Las Vegas, the fastest-growing U.S. city over the past quarter century.

Crowds two and three people deep throng around gaming tables in Macau's 19 casinos. Cheers, boos and clapping commonly erupt. Chinese gamblers like a noisy atmosphere.

As arrivals soar, Macau casinos can keep minimum bets high -- about $40 -- far higher than in Las Vegas. Much of Macau's casino revenue, though, is gathered in VIP rooms where minimum bets are $2,600. Some of the bettors look like Chinese farmers, wearing cloth-soled shoes and rustic clothing. Yet they plunk down big money.

A gambling table in a Macau casino generates $17,808 in revenue per day vs. $2,524 for a similar table in Las Vegas, according to a report, Macau Mania, issued last year by the investment bank CLSA. It said that the average Macau visitor spends $322, $40 more than the average visitor to Las Vegas.

Whether Macau can move smoothly from a gambling destination for high rollers to a mass-market holiday site remains unclear. Nearly 60 percent of Macau's visitors are from the mainland, and some observers say cultural affinities among ethnic Chinese offer some guarantees.

Political upheaval or a health epidemic in China could disrupt arrivals, experts said, and Singapore, which last year ended a four-decade ban on casinos, may crimp Macau's growth.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Macau is already Asia's gambling capital even decades back. But I more look at Macau as a counterpart to Monte Carlo than Las Vegas.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Macau's gambling industry has changed significantly following deregulation several years ago. Stanley Ho's monopoly has been broken, and many American companies are building new casinos and resorts in Macau.

For more information, there is a newsthread on Macau's gambling industry here : http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=107939


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

I think it's only recently that Macau has become more glamorous. From what my parents have told me, it seemed seedy with crime. 

I wonder what will happen when Singapore's casinos are in place.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Macau used to be a crime-infested place, especially before the handover, as rival gangs torched motorcycles and declared war on each other. Times have changed now, and such blatant crimes are rare these days.

Macau will remain the preferred gambling destination for mainland Chinese. After all, it's close to home.


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## unusualer (Jul 23, 2005)

asia's casino capital? i think macao is already making more money than any other gambling cities in the world. macao has also been named the UNESCO cultural heritage last year


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Macau bets on its future
In a tiny corner of China, a gamblers' paradise spawns glitzy, ritzy casinos, each one outdoing the previous one, Vegas-style *
Boston Globe
12 May 2007

This small city-state's transition from Portuguese colonial backwater to Asian Las Vegas, where the dice roll hot and the Chinese play, is well advanced. Nearly 450 years of Portuguese rule have left their mark on the southern Chinese landscape, something that casino magnates bustling in from Hong Kong, the United States and Macau itself have not fully erased. 

Made up of two islands and a peninsula on the edge of, and now part of, China, Macau still has a sleepier side; you just have to look hard to find it. Signs along winding streets are in Portuguese and Chinese, the official languages, and dotted about is the colonial, neo-classical architectural style seen in other former colonies, such as Brazil. 

Macanese food is delicious and inventive, incorporating Chinese, Portuguese and African cuisine, with a dash of the Indian spice. Vinho verde, the Portuguese white wine, is a local favourite. Civil servants still sit in the quieter cafes around Leal Senado, the central square, sipping coffee and eating pastries just like in a Lisbon hostelry. 

If Old Macau represents a true fusion between European traditional ways and Chinese culture, add some Vegas glitz to the mix and you get the New Macau. A swift taxi ride away, inside casinos branded by big Vegas names like Sands or Wynn, the atmosphere is the giddying blend of excitement, disappointment, fear and triumph that gamblers recognize from gaming houses worldwide. 

This is a place where it is hard to escape the numbers - be they roulette-table odds, figures issued by gambling conglomerates detailing their plans, or earnings from casino tables. At one baccarat table, a middle-aged Chinese woman shrugs off the loss of nearly $12,000 on a single game. She restacks her chips and gets busy, the ash on her cigarette barely trembling. With no windows letting in the light, the cheers go up when a high roller is winning. When a small-timer loses another $50, the room doesn't register the loss. 

"Macau over the next few years is going to develop into something quite unique and will neither be a replica of Las Vegas, Atlantic City or Australian gaming," says Ciaran Carruthers, senior vice-president of Galaxy Resort, a Hong Kong company. 

Claiming 22 per cent of Macau's gambling market, the Galaxy group owns the Grand Waldo (grandwaldohotel.com), the first resort to open on the Cotai Strip, a neon alley of casinos, hotels and shops on 80 hectares of reclaimed land that connects Taipa and Coloane off the southern Chinese coast. Cotai is the single biggest tourist investment anywhere, and its backers are betting the development will steal the jackpot from Vegas to become the world's gambling epicentre. And they should know - they built Las Vegas. Both Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands and gambling mogul Steve Wynn have built huge casinos in Macau, and they are among the main drivers behind the Cotai Strip. 

Macau's leisure kingpins are now looking match the success of Las Vegas in wooing nongamers - in Vegas people stay longer, spend a lot more and gamble a lot less. This is where Cotai comes in. Out on the strip, you can see emerging from the silt a gargantuan replica of the Doge's Palace in Venice, with a huge statue of the archangel Gabriel on top. The 39-storey Venetian Macau ( www.venetianmacao.com ), with its 3,000 suites, is the Sands' contribution to the strip and is billed as the largest hotel-casino in the world. 

The first foreign firm to come to Macau, Sands is leading the push. It operates the Venetian resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Las Vegas and opened its first Macau casino ( www.sands.com.mo ) in 2004. That casino is so successful that it paid for itself in its first year. 

Steve Wynn has come to the game later, but he certainly doesn't lack for ambition in Macau. Jets of fire and water from a spectacular fountain, and Frank Sinatra singing Luck Be a Lady greet would-be high-rollers as they enter Wynn Macau (wynnmacau.com), a $1.2-billion resort opened last September. Renoirs and Picassos are on display, while the malls are lined with Chanel, Prada, Christian Dior, Fendi and Louis Vuitton. Not your regular gambling den. "This place will go profitable tomorrow, on its first day. It'll take that long," Wynn told reporters at the launch ceremony where he wore a T-shirt that said "Knowledge Destroys Fear." 

"In Macau, the invitation has been rather one-dimensional - just gambling. Now the invitation is being enriched at a pace not seen in any other destination in the world. The speed of development is dizzying," said Wynn, who, as head of Mirage Resorts, transformed Las Vegas before selling the company and starting from scratch with Wynn Resorts. 

Merrill Lynch investment bank has estimated that between 2007 and 2010, $20 billion U.S. of new capital will be injected into Macau, compared with the $33 billion the Nevada State Gaming Control Board has calculated exists on the Vegas Strip today. 

Carruthers, from Dublin, shows visitors around the Grand Waldo, a large new casino with 168 tables, 334 slot machines, restaurants, retail space, a luxury hotel, spa, nightclubs, a fitness centre and swimming pool. There's even a children's playground, and inevitably for a casino targeted at the Chinese market, karaoke facilities. You hear the distinctive dialects of Fujian, Beijing and Shanghai, both spoken and sung. This is a playground for mainland Chinese gamblers. 

Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal, which is why it has overtaken Las Vegas in gambling revenue. "How Macau changes and develops will be very closely linked to the change and development in China," Carruthers says. "Right now most of our players are from the middle and lower classes in China, and it is the every growing middle class that will drive growth here." 

Looming over that development is octogenarian tycoon Stanley Ho, who kick-started the gambling venue. Ho's SJM company opened the 12-storey circular tower of his flagship Casino Lisboa (hotelisboa.com) in 1970. Thus began the 24/7 gaming experience that marked a revolution in gambling in Asia, and earned Ho mythical status in the city, where he owns 17 casinos. 

The core of his operation was always the labyrinthine Lisboa, a hard-core gambling venue where VIPs would fly into its high-roller rooms by helicopter, and people can win or lose $4 million in a day. Legend has it that one gambler lost more than $100 million in a single game of baccarat. 

Ho's monopoly ended in 2002, when the government began offering concessions to outside investors. Ho is losing market share, analysts say, but if anyone is thinking of writing him off, they need only look at the $385-million Grand Lisboa ( www.grandlisboa.com ), which opened in February, to see that competition has not dulled the 85-year-old's ambitions. 

The Grand Lisboa, a 44-storey building shaped like a lotus flower, was built in a joint venture with MGM Mirage. It is Ho's riposte to Las Vegas arrivistes, and it is luring thousands of gamblers. "We are the leaders, not the followers," Ho said at the launch. "We know the city well." 

Casinos make up 80 per cent of economic activity in Macau, and gambling revenue rose 23 per cent last year, to $7 billion U.S. 

A world without windows leads to a disorientation familiar to fans of Vegas and Atlantic City. In Macau, it is still possible to track down a few plates of dim sum for breakfast when you emerge, blinking into the bright southern Chinese sun. Just hope you have enough chips left to pay for it. 

IF YOU GO: 

Getting there: 

Ferries from Hong Kong leave every 15 minutes from Sheung Wan ( www.turbojet . 

com.hk), with round-trip fares from about $40 Canadian, and every half-hour from Tsim Sha Tsui ( www.nwff.com.hk ). Helicopter service is also available for substantially more ( www.heliexpress.com ). Flights serve major cities across East Asia, mostly on Air Macau (en.airmacau.com.mo) and Air Asia ( www.airasia.com ). 

Where to stay. 

The Wynn Macau (Rua Cidade de Sintra NAPE; 011-853-986-9966; www.wynn 

macau.com) has deluxe rooms with weekday rates starting at about $200 plus tax. Use of the Internet, spa or fitness centre costs extra. 

Next door, rooms at the Galaxy StarWorld (Avenida de Amizade; 011-853-2838-3838; www.starworldmacau.com ) cost around $170 including tax. Internet service and the rooftop pool are free. 

A less expensive option is the Pousada de Mong-Ha (Colina de Mong-Ha; 011-853-2851-5222 ; www.ift.edu.mo/pousada ), at the government-run tourism school. Elegantly decorated rooms run from $70 with no tax assessed. 

Where to eat. 

O Porto Interior, 259b Rua do Almirante Sergio; 011-853-967-770. Photos of early Macanese families, brick floor, antique Chinese screens. Regional specialties include curries, bread soup and "serradura" ("sawdust" pudding). Main courses $7-$18. 

Military Club, 975 Avenida da Praia Grande; 011-853-714-009. Portuguese officers once dined in this lovely pink colonial building dating from 1870. Macanese and Portuguese specialties served in high-ceilinged room with humming ceiling fans and arched windows. Main coursess $11-$21. Popular lunch buffet $16. 

O Manel, 90 Rua Femao Mendes Pinto, island of Taipa; 011-853-827-571. Mingle with the locals in this unpretentious little village restaurant, where owner Manuel Pena turns out Portuguese dishes such as grilled fish and chicken with red "piri piri" (pepper) sauce. Main courses $9-$12.


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## Imperfect Ending (Apr 7, 2003)

Rising...?
I think it's the only one..


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## Paddington (Mar 30, 2006)

Chinese people are crazy about gambling. My Chinese friend whose well educated (working on a Masters degree) gambles constantly in the Detroit casinos. He's been gambling with his extended family since he was big enough to stand.


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## zachus22 (Dec 4, 2006)

There was an article on this in the Toronto Star today. I think Nevadans better get used to not being the centre of attention in the gambling world from now.


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

From: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/220698
___________


> Big bets in Asia's Vegas
> 
> The Canadian Connection
> Surprisingly, Macau's economic resurgence has a lot to do with Canada. Its leader, chief executive Edmund Ho, studied at York University and worked as a chartered accountant in Toronto. Meanwhile, Macau's richest man, Stanley Ho (no relation), maintains homes in Toronto and Vancouver. His three children hold Canadian passports and are major players, spending billions to build brash mega-casinos.
> ...


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Well, the 'Canadian' connection isn't resulting in big business deals going to Canadian firms though. The gambling scene is much dominated by Hong Kong and American investors.


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

Macau isn't just Asia's casino capital, it is now #1 in the World. Macau surpassed Las Vegas in gambling revenue last year and is forecast to widen the lead over Las Vegas significantly in the coming years.


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## OtAkAw (Aug 5, 2004)

Macau already is Asia's gambling capital. But it needs more work for it to achieve the same reputation Las Vegas has now. Revenue isn't everything, without bias, I still think Las Vegas is far more superior than Macau as of now. Consider the fact that it would always be difficult to beat the original one.


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## null (Dec 11, 2002)

> I still think Las Vegas is far more superior than Macau as of now.


How far?


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## Rizzato (Dec 13, 2006)

I dont think it matters so much..even at number 2 Las Vegas is a great place to play, as I bet 'macau' is too.
what currency do they use there?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Macau has its own currency, whose value is almost at par with the Hong Kong Dollar.


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## OtAkAw (Aug 5, 2004)

null said:


> How far?


This far:
LV______________________________________________________________Macau

But you know, in a few years time I also believe that Macau might even overtake Las Vegas in almost every aspect. It's just that, I guess I have to wait until CSI:Macau appears.


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## Paddington (Mar 30, 2006)

Las Vegas has a lot of things that Macau doesn't. Las Vegas shifted from being just a gambling destination, to a more broad entertainment destination a long time ago, mostly under pressure from expanding gambling throughout the U.S. Macau will take a long time to achieve Las Vegas's status as a tourist destination.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*EU worried by new face of Macau *
16 August 2007
South China Morning Post

A European Union report yesterday expressed concern that Macau's rapid development was creating "steep and widening inequality". 

In contrast to previous reports, where the city's heritage efforts and strong economic performance had been heaped with praise, the report noted "pertinent problems". 

The Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on Macau in 2006 painted a picture of the city, having overtaken Las Vegas as the world's largest gaming market, being under increasing strain with a "government facing increased challenges to achieve sustainable development". 

Congestion, pollution, inequality, "a groundswell of serious discontent" and allegations of corruption were given prominence in the report. 

"One quarter of the labour force is now imported labour. Local residents who have lost their jobs are expressing their discontent. Macau's boom is causing rapid inflation ... especially of property-related costs rising faster than the pay rises of some of the poorer groups, reducing {hellip} their real level of income," the report said. 

"Huge building projects are changing the character of Macau, engendering environmental stresses. Rapid expansion in the number of cars and motorcycles in the small streets of Macau have led to congestion and pollution," it said. 

Although unemployment fell to its lowest since the 1999 handover, and per capita income surpassed Hong Kong's last year, "inflationary pressure became increasingly acute {hellip} Macau is, however, characterised by a steep and widening inequality of incomes". 

The problem of illegal workers and the demonstrations against this on May 1 last year were noted, as well as the arrest of Ao Man-long, former secretary for transport and public works, on a corruption charge. The Macau Court of Final Appeal is expected to decide this month whether he should stand trial. 

Ng Kuok-cheong, a pro-democracy lawmaker in Macau, said the social problems, as well as collusion between officials and big business, had been developing for years, and there had not been a drastic change. 

"The real problem is that there's been no reaction from the government, no improvement to the problems," Mr Ng said. 

Political commentator Larry So Man-yum, associate professor of Macau Polytechnic Institute, said the report had accurately identified some serious social problems facing the city. 

"After the Ao Man-long scandal, the government's credibility has been called into question. Its lack of transparency has come into the spotlight," Professor So said, adding that international scrutiny might help improve the Macau government's transparency.


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## Jo (Jul 6, 2003)

I guess for now Macau is culture+gambling and Las Vegas is entertainment+gambling.. Macau is expanding quickly in the entertainment and gambling areas though


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## touchring (Mar 25, 2005)

Anyone from macau here? Is the social problem really serious?


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## DarkLite (Dec 31, 2004)

*well the hotels being built in macau are a FRACTION of whats being built in vegas.
hotels with hundreds of rooms cannot compare to megaresorts with thousands of rooms!*


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Do these thousand room hotels in Vegas actually fill up? What are their tourist arrival numbers like?

I suppose a hotel's main source of revenue isn't room fare anyway, but still.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* Giant Venetian spins the wheel for changing Macau *
Sun Aug 26, 1:31 AM ET

MACAU (AFP) - The gargantuan Venetian resort casino will have 1.8 billion dollars at stake when it opens Tuesday, betting it can turn Macau from a gambling paradise into a family entertainment centre to rival Las Vegas.

The Venetian Macau, operated by the Las Vegas giant Sands, will be the world's biggest casino, the company says. Only one building in the world -- a Nasa facility in Florida -- is bigger by floor area, it adds.

The behemoth has 3,000 rooms, a fleet of gondolas along its shop-lined canals, and includes what seems to be a full-scale version of Venice's landmark Bridge of Sighs.

On its opening Tuesday -- August 28 is an auspicious date in China -- around 160 of the 350 stores at the Venetian will open, shifting the emphasis in the southern Chinese territory from roulette to top-end retail. The company would not comment on whether it was disappointed with the occupancy rate.

The Wynn Macau, in comparison, has only around a dozen luxury brand stores -- although it includes the most profitable Louis Vuitton store per square floor in all of handbag-mad Asia.

Amid the Venetian's singing gondoliers lingers the question of whether the project can help Macau emulate Las Vegas's change from pure gambling to a genuine entertainment centre, where exhibitions, shopping and big shows account for a huge chunk of revenue.

The Venetian strategy is simple: get the Asian visitor, who already spends a huge amount on gambling, to come for longer, bring their family and scoop up every luxury brand they can get their hands on.

Currently the average visitor stays in Macau for just 1.2 days, meaning most leave without seeing anything apart from the gaming floor, but the market will follow the product, its executives believe.

"The China customer is the highest spending tourist (per capita) on retail outside of their country in the world. We expect people will just come here to shop," David Sylvester, the Venetian Macau's vice-president of retail told the South China Morning Post.

The new mix also means putting on audience-attracting sporting and entertainment events -- from Manchester United to Cirque de Soleil -- and expanding the city's exhibition facilities.

JP Morgan's Macau analyst Billy Ng believes the gamble will pay off.

"If you look at mainland tourists, when they are not gaming they look to go shopping. No matter where they go -- Hong Kong or Europe, they are the same as Hong Kong people, who like to shop very much," he said.

"As long as the product is attractive and you have a unique theme-oriented mall with all the major brands, it will work."

Sands are also gambling on the Cotai Strip where the Venetian has been built, a reclaimed strip of land now populated by cranes and foreign workers that aims to have 18,500 hotel rooms by 2009, with many more planned.

Sanjay Nadkarni, a professor in tourism at Macau Science and Technology University, whose office is just opposite the Venetian's huge lake, is not so sure if the strategy will pay off.

"If that is the aim of Macau -- a sustainable tourism destination based on the family market -- I just do not know how workable that is," he said.

"The Venetian is a watershed. There is no statistic available to show if it can work, you just have to try and stare into your crystal ball to see if it will succeed."

Nadkarni says Fisherman's Wharf, a collection of bars and family-targeted entertainment, has already failed to attract women and youngsters to Macau, although the Venetian's ambition is on a much bigger scale.

Rival casinos are watching with interest. JayDee Clayton, who runs Wynn's Macau casino, said he welcomed the arrival of the giant, but that he expects his customers to remain loyal.

"We are about luxury and niche not about scale and volume," he told AFP.

"We expect our customers to have a look at the Venetian, but we also expect them to come back because that is where they feel comfortable."

But perhaps the X-factor in the success of Macau and the Cotai Strip is not the elaborate entertainment and luxury brands in the venues, but the mainland Chinese authorities.

Earlier this year, the government tightened access for mainland visitors to the gambling haven. The reasons for the move are not clear, but Nadkarni is sure it is a result of the fallout from heavy gambling.

"This is both to do with the social problems that gambling creates, but also the fact that China's hard-earned money is just disappearing abroad," he said.

"So the risk is not simply the viability of the model the Cotai Strip is proposing, but also the acceptability of the social cost to the Macanese people and the mainland Chinese."

The social legacy for Macau of the boom is still to be played out. Although none of the casinos have failed to find staff yet, the drain on a population of 525,500 to fill all the croupiers and service staff will only increase.

Reports of teachers and schoolkids quitting colleges for the better salaries they can earn dealing blackjack are rife.

And in a sign of the challenges that lie ahead for Macau, mass protests in May over the increasing number of foreign workers degenerated into violent rioting.


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## superchan7 (Jan 21, 2004)

joaquin said:


> *well the hotels being built in macau are a FRACTION of whats being built in vegas.
> hotels with hundreds of rooms cannot compare to megaresorts with thousands of rooms!*


Sure, but the Chinese market has much more potential in terms of sheer numbers. Macau's casino industry is already larger than that of Las Vegas in real value as of 2006. How the industry in Macau matures and grows its own identity remains to be seen, as well as the income balance of Macau's population which remains a major social problem.


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## Jaeger (May 11, 2006)

Macau took more money than Las Vegas last year.


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## LMCA1990 (Jun 18, 2005)

Maybe Macau will grow like Vegas and pass HK.


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## vincent (Sep 12, 2002)

joaquin said:


> *well the hotels being built in macau are a FRACTION of whats being built in vegas.
> hotels with hundreds of rooms cannot compare to megaresorts with thousands of rooms!*


the Venetian Macau has 3000 rooms dude, which is around the same as the largest hotel in Las Vegas.


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

lmcm1990 said:


> Maybe Macau will grow like Vegas and pass HK.


The two cities are totally different in nature. One is more focused in finance; and the other is in tourism. They are gonna grow together on their own profession with little competition.


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

lmcm1990 said:


> Maybe Macau will grow like Vegas and pass HK.


Pass HK in what? The two cities barely have anything in common...


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## Paddington (Mar 30, 2006)

superchan7 said:


> Sure, but the Chinese market has much more potential in terms of sheer numbers. Macau's casino industry is already larger than that of Las Vegas in real value as of 2006. How the industry in Macau matures and grows its own identity remains to be seen, as well as the income balance of Macau's population which remains a major social problem.


The difference is that Macau is the only place in China with gambling, whereas in the U.S., almost every state has gambling now.


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## LMCA1990 (Jun 18, 2005)

_00_deathscar said:


> Pass HK in what? The two cities barely have anything in common...


I meant population. I know Macau is a lot smaller, but it's one of the densest cities in the world.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Macau has come a long way and change has been very rapid given it wasn't so long ago when the gambling industry was deregulated. The plan for the whole strip around the Venetian is quite staggering.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Venetian Aims to Make Macau Resort City *
28 August 2007

MACAU (AP) - Casinos like the Wynn and Sands have already helped this southern coastal Chinese city surpass the Las Vegas Strip as the world's most lucrative gambling center. 

The $2.4 billion Venetian, scheduled to open Tuesday, aims to take a further step and transform Macau from a gambling pit stop for Chinese tourists to a vacation and business convention destination where a range of visitors can shop, watch shows -- and roll the dice. 

Macau's casinos are currently scattered across the territory, which comprises a peninsula connected to mainland China and the outlying Cotai island. 

American billionaire Sheldon Adelson hopes his Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai will help launch a massive, concentrated resort area he calls the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. 

The 10.5 million-square-foot Venetian -- twice the size of the Las Vegas original -- is the largest building in Asia and the second largest in the world. The largest building is a Boeing Co. plant in Washington. 

The Venetian houses 6,000 slot machines and more than 800 gambling tables. It has 3,000 rooms, a 15,000-seat sports arena, retail space for 350 stores, 1.2 million square feet of convention space, fine dining and a Cirque du Soleil-produced show. 

Its decor aims to replicate the beauty of Venice -- with a Chinese touch. Chinese-style sampans as well as gondolas will sail down canals. 

Adelson also plans to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton and St. Regis next door. In all, his Las Vegas Sands Corp., which also runs the Sands Macao on the Macau peninsula, plans to invest up to $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip. 

Opinions are mixed on whether he will succeed. 

Some analysts believe Adelson is smart to broaden the range of tourists visiting Macau. The convention business -- a specialty of the Las Vegas Sands -- is a lucrative one, they say. 

"The Venetian will get new customers who are right now not going to Macau at all," analyst Billy Ng at JPMorgan Securities said. 

Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner said earlier that 44 major conventions have already been scheduled at the Venetian for the next two years. He also said he expects the Venetian Macao to lengthen the average guest stay to three to four days from 1.2 days in other Macau hotels. 

Others say it will take time to change tourism patterns in Macau. 

Rob Hart at Morgan Stanley said Macau will never become a diversified travel destination like Las Vegas. 

"It's going to be slow transition ... it's never going to happen to the same extent," Hart said. 

"(Visitors will) go to the mall, but mainly they'll go to the casino," he said. 

There are also doubts about whether Western entertainment like Cirque du Soleil will appeal to an Asian clientele. 

"It may be more useful to do an Andy Lau concert there than Cirque du Soleil," said Gabriel Chan at Credit Suisse Hong Kong, referring to the veteran Hong Kong actor-singer.


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## asif iqbal (Sep 3, 2006)

gambling is a bad thing never a good one, i know many people who have been destroyed due to gambling i wish this ridiclous industry is outlawed


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

^^ that happened in my family. :sleepy:

it is easy to win lots of money and even more easy to loose much more. that's addicting.


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## asif iqbal (Sep 3, 2006)

PeterGabriel said:


> ^^ that happened in my family. :sleepy:
> 
> it is easy to win lots of money and even more easy to loose much more. that's addicting.


yeah its like 80% of the profit comes from 20% of the players


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## -Corey- (Jul 8, 2005)

_00_deathscar said:


> Do these thousand room hotels in Vegas actually fill up? What are their tourist arrival numbers like?
> 
> I suppose a hotel's main source of revenue isn't room fare anyway, but still.


*38.9 million visitors; and 40 million rooms sold in 2006..*
*http://www.forbestraveler.com/2007/07/07072701_slide_1.html?partner=playlist&thisSpeed=15000*

*And about the % of room capacity in Las Vegas, i coulnt find any link but i read "here" in CIty Urban talk that is about 85%.*

And now do you think Macao gets more tourist than Las Vegas??


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

lmcm1990 said:


> I meant population. I know Macau is a lot smaller, but it's one of the densest cities in the world.


The numbers don't even come close....
HK has 7 million; Macao has 0.5 million.

Macao is almost completely urbanized, where HK has more than 60% of undeveloped landmass. 

Yes, overall population density in Macao is higher; but in term of urbanized population density, the two cities come very close and HK may even be higher.

It certainly feels a lot more denser on streets in HK than in Macau.


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## [email protected] (May 7, 2007)

It is good things that capitals increase in Asia. 
Because the Westerners are conceited. 

pride of Europe and American person will be broken one by one from now on.





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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

[email protected] said:


> It is good things that capitals increase in Asia.
> Because the Westerners are conceited.
> 
> pride of Europe and American person will be broken one by one from now on.
> ...


I'd wager (pun fully intended) that most gamblers in Macau are bastardly rich Chinese folk, and that you are, as always, talking out of your backside.


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