Macau's Big Vegas Gamble

January 9th

It's already topped Las Vegas with $7 billion in casino revenue, and the sky seems to be the limit as this tiny former Portuguese colony stakes its claim to be the world's highest roller

Macau last year surpassed its gaudy mentor, Las Vegas, in terms of casino revenues by bringing in almost $7 billion a 22 per cent hike from 2005.

There are an estimated 4,000 gaming tables in this former Portuguese colony. Some expect that number to jump to 9,000 in the next three years., especially on the landfill that links the former islands of Taipa and Coloane south of the main section of Macau.

Hong Kong officials won't publicly admit it, but some observers wonder if Macau's more famous colonial cousin across the bay might need to someday allow casinos to bolster its own spot in the tourism market.

Merrill Lynch has suggested gaming companies could spend $71 billion in Asia in the next four years. Some of that will be dropped in Macau, but Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and others also are cashing in.

The government of China once listed gambling as one of "six evils" that Chinese people should avoid. That hasn't stopped Beijing from standing back and letting the likes of Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas build hotels all over Macau. China gained control of Macau in 1999. It had been a Portuguese possession for four centuries.

Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino operator who runs The Sands in Macau, says Macau will do in six years what took Vegas six decades.

"This is going to be a giant of entertainment, unprecedented anywhere in the world," he says.

Some Hong Kong residents also don't like the idea of pandering to the masses of mainland Chinese tourists who flood into The Venetian and other hotels on a daily basis.