Macao To Threaten Las Vegas As The World's Gambling Capital

According to a report published by Globalysis, a research organization that studies the developments in the casino gaming industry in Asia and the rest of the world, predicts that gambling revenues from Macao's casinos in China will raise above Las Vegas casinos revenues by the end of the year, and will become the favored gambling center in the world. The organization is considered one of the best gambling resources in the world, and its opinion is considered highly reliable.

Since Bugsy Malone opened the first casino in Las Vegas, it has been considered the gambling capital of the world. But Las Vegas may be losing its grasp as the leading casino place, analysts say.

According to recent report from Globalysis, Las Vegas's prominence is being taken over by Macao, a tiny district in China. According to the latest prediction, by 2007 the Macao casinos are expected to bring over $8 billion in revenues, a figure that surpasses the Las Vegas casinos revenues of $6 billion during 2005.

One of the reasons for the rapid projected growth is based on the fact that during the next 5 years 25 new hotel-casinos will be built in Macao, in an investment of over $20 billion. These casinos will draw crows from countries all over the world, including from Europe and the states.

The report deals only with Las Vegas casinos that belong to the strip, which holds the more luxurious casinos, even though Las Vegas holds hundreds of other casinos. The revenues for all of Las Vegas' casinos amounts to $9.1 billion, and according to the report this figure will also be broken in Macao by 2008.

Macao, which is less that an hours' shuttle ride from Hong Kong, has developed its online gambling industry only in the last 5 years. Until then the industry was monopolized by Stanley Ho. In 2001 the local government ceased Ho's 40 year monopoly, with the support of the Chinese government, and since then investments kept pouring into the Macao casino industry.

Ironically enough, one of the key investors in Macao was non other than the LasVegas sands corp., one of the major Las Vegas casino companies, that owns some of the most famous casino, such as the Venetian hotel.

After sands Macao was opened in 2004, the gambling revenues in Macao rose by 44% in relation to the previous year, and a year later it rose again by 11% to reach $5.6 billion.

Article Submitted by:
Josh Gabbins, Gambling Editor.

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