A report by Globalysis, a research organization that studies the gaming industry, was issued recently in which is predicted that the Chinese city of Macau, may surpass Las Vegas in revenues and will threaten its title as gambling capital of the world.
The city of Macau, a former Portuguese colony, is located about 40 miles west of Hong Kong. It is a very small city, much smaller than Hong Kong, but despite that it is expected to bring in more than $8 billion in casino revenues by 2007, compared to Las Vegas' $6 billion. The report takes into account the Strip's casinos only. The total revenues of all Las Vegas casinos are $9 billion. However, this also will apparently be surpassed by Macau in 2008.
The 25 new hotels and casinos that are planned to be built during the next 5 years are partly the reasons for the speedy projected growth. Among the big investors are Vegas hotel & casino tycoons Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson.
Adelson, along with his company Las Vegas Sands, Corp., opened the Sands Macau and will follow soon with their "The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel Casino". Macau's gambling revenues rose by 44% after the Sands Macau opened in 2004, compared to the previous year.
Investments have been poured into Macau' casino industry and in general since Stanley Ho's government-granted monopoly of the industry ended five years ago.
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