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The Straits Times, 14 Nov 04

Casino raiders
Las Vegas has raised the stakes in the anything-goes gambling den that is Macau with a luxurious casino

Glittery Las Vegas gambling has arrived in seedy Macau, promising new charms for China's inveterate players, and this former Portuguese colony may never be the same. The first Las Vegas invasion, the Sands, has risen bronze-tinted and modernistic on the edge of Macau's little harbour, where fast ferries from Hong Kong deliver thousands of gamblers every day. With 300 tables and 500 slot machines, the sleek new entry scooped up almost US$36 million (S$59 million) in the first 10 weeks after opening in May.

Venetian Macau, the Las Vegas Sands subsidiary that built it, has started construction on a second high-end casino near Macau International Airport. Wynn Resorts, another Las Vegas firm, has launched two similarly grandiose projects, one of which includes a golf course along with its casino.

The competition from Las Vegas has pushed the traditional Macau gambling empire, created by the legendary Stanley Ho, to refurbish frayed facilities and erect new ones. At the same time, Galaxy, a Hong Kong-owned firm that initially partnered with Venetian and then split off, has broken ground on a casino described by the government's Tourism Office as 'a large-scale resort and entertainment centre'. It has also announced plans for a new 600-room establishment in the city centre.

The new construction is only part of the picture. The deepest changes may be in the personality of this territory, which has a long tradition of laissez faire, allowing prostitutes, loan sharks and gangsters to prosper alongside the croupiers.

But the Las Vegas gaming industry has made it clear it intends to market gambling in Macau as wholesome entertainment. 'Macau can no longer be just a gambling den,' said an industry source.

Ho's Macau Gaming Company, which grew up in Macau's smoky tradition and helped it grow, has also begun seeking a broader clientele. Macau has undergone several changes since it reverted to Chinese control in 1999, including the granting of new licences into a formerly closed gambling market.

But none has been as far-reaching as this challenge to the anything-goes credo that has made Macau notorious. Traditionally, gamblers of all kinds find a warm welcome. Macau's homegrown casinos cater with indiscriminate zeal to Hong Kong high rollers who fly in by helicopter to bet millions in VIP rooms and to crowds of bused-in Chinese who fritter away their salaries chip by chip a few storeys below.

The do-as-you-like jumble has proved an irresistible draw for people from mainland China, where casinos are illegal. By the millions - 11.8 million last year - they have poured into Macau since the turnover to China, aided by increasingly lax border controls. The question for the Macau gambling industry is whether the new concepts and the new level of luxury being introduced by Las Vegas gambling firms will appeal to Chinese visitors. Executives have predicted they can also draw visitors from elsewhere in Asia with opulence, conventions and golfing. But China, with its 1.3 billion inhabitants, has remained the main target. Ho, the 84-year-old gambling patriarch, has not spoken much in public of the end to his long-held monopoly.

But Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that at a Macau Gaming function in September, he vowed: 'We are Chinese and we will not be disgraced. We will not lose to the intruders.'

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