Macau tourism booming

The number of visitors to the tiny island of Macau rose by an impressive 23 per cent last year, putting the number at 27 million arrivals and the casino capital of the Far East on track to surpass Hong Kong this year.

Hong Kong received 28 million visits last year, a jump of 10 per cent.

Macau is becoming increasingly popular with tourists – it is only a one hour ferry trip from Hong Kong and new casinos are continuously being built. The former Portuguese colony is also developing into an all-round entertainment location to widen its appeal.

NJ’s MGM probe continues

The efforts by MGM Mirage to open a casino halfway around the world have led to a review of whether there’s a conflict of interest within the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. For nearly three years, the division has been conducting an investigation into MGM’s partner in the Chinese enclave of Macau. The partner, Pansy Ho, is the daughter of gambling magnate Stanley Ho, who for decades has been suspected of having connections to the Chinese mob.

Now, the division has come under scrutiny because four of its investigators have been freelancing for a South Jersey casino consulting firm, Spectrum Gaming, which conducted its own investigation of the Hos and wrote a report detailing allegations of links between Stanley Ho and Chinese “triads” and raising questions about Pansy Ho’s independence from her father.

Source: NJ.com

Review of the Cotai Strip’s Venetian Macao

The Venetian Macao on Macau’s Cotai Strip outshines any competition in its trailblazing pace…as the largest most spectacular Integrated Resort in the world. My Turbojet dash across the South China Sea brought along exciting Chinese chatter and fervent debate on what’s really happening on the other side of the Pearl River delta. While I tried to snooze off a wee hundred winks, I was woken up by the distant dazzle of Macau’s brilliant architecture, opening its steel, chrome and glass arms to welcome my keen critique of its irresistible allure.

Macau shares geographic proximity with its envious counterpart Hong Kong across, and is home to some of the most compelling gaming destinations this side of Vegas. It’s Portuguese and Chinese legacy tinges its pace with impatient opprobrium, defying its earlier historic chuckle as a sleepy, non-descript Portuguese trading outpost.

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New casinos add to booming gaming revenue

Macao’s casino industry will likely see record gross revenues of 83 billion patacas (10 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, an increase of 46.5 percent over last year, The Macao Post Daily reported on Wednesday.

The casinos’ gross receipts were expected to reach 8.1 billion patacas (1.03 billion U.S. dollars) in December, the daily quoted a senior official of Macao’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau as saying.

He added that the Las-Vegas-style casino resort MGM Grand Macao, opened on Dec. 18, recorded gross receipts of 51.5 million patacas (6.6 million U.S. dollars) in its first two days of operations.

The opening of MGM Grand has added to the number of casinos in Macao to 28, including the Macao Palace floating casino that is currently closed for renovation works.

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Macau visitor volume keeps rising

Macau continues to receive record numbers of visitors, as the number of visitor arrivals reached 2,458,120 in November 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 26.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose by 31.2% and 10.3% respectively, with those from Southeast Asia soared by 85.4%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.1% of the total arrivals, at 1,280,484.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (57.1% of the total), Hong Kong (26.7%) and Southeast Asia (5.3%). Among the Mainland visitors, 45.6% travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, at 640,143.

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