Monday, January 29, 2007

Macau may have dethroned the Las Vegas Strip as the world's biggest casino
center, according to figures available Wednesday that show the Chinese
territory's gambling revenue jumped 22 percent to $6.95 billion last year.
The former Portuguese enclave has been booming since the government busted
up a casino monopoly three years ago and began welcoming U.S. gaming
powerhouses like Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts. The U.S.
companies have been furiously building mega casino and resort projects in
the tiny city - less than one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C. - on
China's southeastern coast. Key to Macau's success will be luring the masses
of high rollers from mainland China, who are growing richer and tend to bet
more at the casino tables than Americans do in Las Vegas. About 3 billion
people - half the world's population - in Asia can get to the city within
five hours by plane, the Sands company says.
The Las Vegas Strip has yet to announce its full-year revenue figures for
2006, but it would have to bring in nearly $1 billion in December alone to
beat Macau's figure, which was posted with no fanfare on the Web site of its
Gaming and Inspection Coordination Bureau. The Las Vegas Strip has said for
the 11 months through November, revenue came to $6.08 billion. If December's
revenue is the same as it was the previous year, the annual total would hit
about $6.57 billion - just behind Macau. Last year, Macau's gambling revenue
totaled 55.88 billion patacas, or $6.95 billion, compared to 45.80 billion
patacas in 2005, the gaming bureau's Web site said. The figure includes
revenue from casinos, lotteries and dog and horse racing. Still, Macau lags
far behind the entire state of Nevada, which raked in $10.66 billion in
2005, according to the Center for Gaming Research at the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas.