Macau is a modern city today through the revenue and infrastructure generated by Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM) and its flagship Hotel Lisboa.

Stanley Ho’s empire continues to dominate the gaming market. A main pillar of the economy, it represents 70% of government revenue.

Macau today is for players. If you’re not throwing dice at the tables, you’re betting on stocks – and winning. The biggest players of all are the region’s main gaming operators who are racing to set up shop before the next guy, each wager bigger and better than the last. Wheeling and dealing on a grand scale, their chips are the casinos, hotels and entertainment venues that they are building one after the other, and investment may well eventually top more than $15 billion. Still only a select few, they count some of the world’s best-known names in gaming. And if the success of Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Macau casino is anything to go by, they are set to win big. Constructed at a cost of $265 million, the Sands has already brought in more than $400 million since opening in 2004.

Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal and the Chinese, encouraged by a lowering of visa restrictions, are streaming in. A table at the Sands daily brings in over 50% more than the average table in Las Vegas. Chinese gamblers play more hands per hour and bet more – an average of $85 per hand, compared with $25 in Las Vegas. Slot machines in Macau net an average of $200 per day; in Las Vegas, it’s only $100. Gaming revenues reached $5.2 billion in Macau last year, unseating Las Vegas as the world’s most lucrative gaming center, and many of Macau’s newest operators have still yet to open their doors. When they do, Asia will have itself a new star and world-class destination.

So who are these players and what are they building? Local magnate Stanley Ho, who enjoyed a forty-year monopoly in the gaming industry until 2002, is still the biggest fish. His 15 casinos continue to dominate over 70% of the market, while Sheldon Adelson’s Sands and Galaxy’s Waldo Hotel account for the rest. However, a new $700 million resort will be opened next year by Las Vegas’s Steve Wynn, and MGM Mirage - in a joint venture with Stanley Ho’s daughter, Pansy Ho - will open a $1 billion hotel-casino next door. In addition, Mr. Adelson has already broken ground in Cotai on a $1.8 billion, 3,000 room hotel-casino based on his Las Vegas Venetian, and Galaxy Resort & Casino is planning to invest $1 billion in four other hotels. Meanwhile, Dr. Ho’s son, Lawrence Ho, Director of Melco International Development Ltd., has signed an agreement with Australian PBL to build a six-star Crown Macau on Taipa and the City of Dreams resort in Cotai. Not to be outdone, Stanley Ho is constructing a $140 million theme park called Fisherman’s Wharf, complete with an erupting volcano, and also creating a Mississippi steamboat hotel and a Chinese fort, as well as a new $250 million hotel-casino across the street from his landmark Lisboa Hotel, one of the world’s top-grossing casinos.

Tax revenues from the gaming sector netted the government $1.85 billion last year, and Secretary for Economy and Finance, Francis Tam, has said that benefits from the liberalization of gaming are leading to the development of other sectors and increasing Macau’s overall competitiveness. U.S. consulate Senior Commercial Officer, Stewart Ballard, says that the city is not only becoming a world-class tourist destination, but also an excellent base for entering the Chinese market. He comments: “The government is running at an $802 million surplus, and that is just the beginning. With millions of tourists coming to Macau from mainland China every year, that is a great way for a company to test a new product.”