Macau Land-Based Casinos

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Today Macau records the highest turnover in land casino gambling, having overtaken Las Vegas in 2007. Both Macau and gambling in Macau have an interesting history. The Portuguese came to Macau in the 16th century. From obtaining the right to anchor their ships in 1535 they moved on to securing the rights for perpetual occupation and governance in 1887. Based on a fresh series of negotiations in the late 20th century, Macau was handed over to China in 1999 and became a Specially Administered Region.

Gambling tourism contributes to over 50% of the economy of Macau. It began in 1847 when gambling was legalized in order to generate revenues for the government. Initially only Chinese forms of gambling were allowed. Licenses were issued to over 200 fantan houses, which were Chinese equivalent of casinos. These were required to pay gambling rent to the government. In 1937 this was changed and a casino monopoly concession was granted to the Tai Xing Company. However, Tai Xing was unable to exploit the full potential of gambling even under monopoly conditions. Therefore in 1962 the government transferred the monopoly rights to all forms of gambling to a syndicate known as STDM. This was owned by Hong Kong and Macau businessmen. It was STDM that changed the face of gambling in Macau. Western casino games were introduced for the first time. Modern mass transport was arranged between Macau and Hong Kong so that millions of gamblers from Hong Kong came to gamble in the land casinos of Macau every year. The first license expired in 1986 but was extended for another 15 years. In 2001 the monopoly system was discontinued. After 2002 the Macau government granted operating concessions to six consortiums, including American companies. That ushered in the Las Vegas style hotel resort casinos. The next big development was the introduction of poker in August 2007. The first live poker tournament was the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau event in November 2007.

Today there are 33 casino cum hotels in Macau. The best of them are located in the Cotai Strip, which has been modeled along the lines of The Strip in Las Vegas as far as glitz and glamour is concerned. The largest casino is The Venetian Macau, which has 550,000 square feet of casino space including 800 gaming tables and 3,400 slot machines. Integrated with the casino is 3,000 suites resort. The Venetian Macau is owned by the Las Vegas Sands corporation and is modeled on its sister casino The Venetian in Las Vegas. It opened to the public in August 2007 and is the largest hotel building in Asia.

MGM Mirage is a partner in one of the consortiums that has an operating license. Its casino in Macau is MGM Grand Macau. It is smaller than The Venetian with 222,000 square feet of casino space, 345 tables and 1035 slot machines. The hotel has 600 rooms. The other casinos on the Cotai Strip are The Four Seasons, Macau Studio City, The Phoenix and The Shangri-La. Harrah's, the leading land casino operator in the world is also planning a casino in Macau. One of the reasons of the success of Macau land casinos could be that online gambling is not allowed there.

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