Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

January 23, 2007

Macau Overtakes Las Vegas as World Gambling Capital

Posted by Hunter

Ok, well, we all knew this was coming.

Macau, the former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong, has overtaken Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world, at least in terms of gambling revenue.

For 2006, Las Vegas took in $6.5 billion while Macau saw $6.95 billion flow into their coffers.

MarketWatch Story on Macau 2006 Gambling Revenues

Update: Looks like this is a 'probably' vs a certainty at this point. The $6.5B for LV is estimated and is the Las Vegas Strip, not the entire city. We'll see when those numbers are published. Still, if not this year, it will be basically a draw and next year I would say it is certain and will be clear.

Update (Wed): More on this from the RJ, along with some comments from Steve Wynn.

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Categories: Business of Gaming, Las Vegas Strip, Macau Casinos and Hotels


Comments

Read archived comments (5 so far)
January 25, 2007 5:10 AM Posted by detroit1051

For you left-coasters, NBC's Today Show had a segment on Macau at 7:15 this morning. Wm Weidner was interviewed. He managed to get one dig in at Wynn by saying Wynn Macau would fit in a small corner of Venetian's Cotail Strip site. The graphic that showed the number of people who lived within a few hours of Vegas compared to the same size area near Macau was amazing. Macau will never run out of customers.
There was good video of a Wynn Sky Suite. Maybe it will be on Youtube later.

February 9, 2007 9:23 AM Posted by Ronald Gibbs

Just returned from Macau and the Cotail Strip is Las vegas on steriods. Mr. Adelson has pertty much the whole strip. I think that they Vegas players have truly taken the years in Vegas and put the knowledge to use in Macau. Mr. Adelson is connecting all his properties via sky bridges and moving walklways. The Venetian Macau design wise is the same as the Venetian Las Vegas but 4 times the size. What they are doing Macau is a second shot at Las Vegas with all the years of knowledge behind it.

February 9, 2007 3:54 PM Posted by Devon

"The Venetian Macau design wise is the same as the Venetian Las Vegas but 4 times the size. What they are doing Macau is a second shot at Las Vegas with all the years of knowledge behind it"

Does anybody really want a Venetian that's 4x the size of its vegas counterpart?

February 9, 2007 6:09 PM Posted by Chris B

Its a bit of a stretch to say Cotai is the Las Vegas on steroids when there is only one casino resort that has progressed beyond foundations and the whole area is still significantly smaller than the Las Vegas strip. Besides, most of the Las Vegas Strip has gone through multiple rounds of renewal.

March 24, 2007 6:39 PM Posted by detroit1051

Long, interesting article on Stanley Ho in the 3/25/07 edition of the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/business/yourmoney/25macao.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1