Macau surpasses Las Vegas

With Champ Car now racing in both Las Vegas and Zhuhai (which is a 10 min. ride to adjacent Macau) this story has some significance in that it underscores just how important, and potentially big, the Chinese market is. Vegas is big, but Macau takes in more money. We're sure that the Zhuhai promoter will be tapping into the casino industry with its race just like the Las Vegas race promoter is doing.

What happens in Vegas now happens in Macau. The former Portuguese colony, once a seedy sideshow to nearby Hong Kong, has overtaken Las Vegas as the world's No. 1 gambling market. From January through November, Macau casinos took in $6.485 billion from slots and table games, beating the Vegas' $6.079 billion, according to Macau's Statistics and Census Service and the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Full 2006 numbers won't be out for weeks, but Kareem Jalal, editor of Inside Asian Gaming, says Macau probably widened its lead in December.

Macau draws millions of visitors from mainland China, a booming economy with a population of 1.3 billion people, who can't legally bet at home. "Anything that's prohibited is interesting," says factory manager Loh Jian-ping, visiting from the Chinese city of Guangzhou, before heading into a casino. More at USA Today

Related Article: The biggest gamblers in Macau aren't the guys lining up at the blackjack tables and slot machines. They're the casino and hotel owners betting billions that they can transform this backwater on the edge of the Chinese mainland into the Las Vegas of the East.

Already, Macau is overtaking the Vegas strip as the world's top gambling market. But such casino impresarios as Sheldon Adelson of Sands Las Vegas and Stephen Wynn of Las Vegas' Wynn Resorts have grander ideas: They're working on a makeover that will turn the former Portuguese colony and city of 450,000 into Asia's premier tourist destination and erase memories of the city's tawdry and sleepy past.

"If Macau wants to change its international image — which has been a small, sleazy gambling place — you have to offer more than baccarat," says Paulo Azevedo, executive director of Macau Business magazine. "You need shopping centers, you need big shows, you need big retailing, you need a variety of restaurants." More at USA Today