The world's largest casino

AN AMERICAN EMPIRE IN ASIA

A year ago, the whole world waited with skepticism at the inauguration of the world's largest casino, The Venetian Macao Resort in Macao (People's Republic of China).

Not even multimillionaire Sheldon G. Adelson could have dreamed his Venetian monstrosity would stir such an amazing reaction in the public. The following figure reflects this clearly: during the first weekend, The Venetian Macao registered 170,000 people roaming its facilities. To top it off, 17 days after its grand opening, it exceeded one million visitors. This stunning record will certainly grant its American owner, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, millions in benefits, even if it's already accustomed to the success of giant casinos. Nonetheless, Adelson and his associates will have to wait a while to recover the 2.4 billion dollars they invested in the biggest hotel in Asia and second largest building in the world. They stated the money will be completely recovered in no more than five years.

A complex that gives an inferiority complex

Constructed between the Taipa and Coloane Islands, The Venetian covers an area of approximately one million square meters. Given the fact that the casino is one of the most important business points, it covers 52,000 square meters of Macao soil, Asia's gambling Mecca. Its contents include 870 gaming tables and more than 3,400 slot machines. But since gambling in not man's only vice, they built a 90,000 square meter commercial area that includes a stadium with 15,000 seats and a convention center. Inspired by Renaissance Venice, this complex includes reproductions of the San Marcos Square, the Campanile Tower, the Dogo's Palace, and even two canals with their correspondent gondoliers.

This new five star hotel has various elements that make it one-of-a-kind, like its 3,000 suites divided into royale, bella (starting at 1,488 dollars a night) and rialto (starting at 2,488 dollars a night). The suites royale are 70 square meters big and have two floors, dividing the living-room and the bedroom. The bella suites also have two floors, as well as two queen-sized beds. The rialto suites take luxury to a whole new level with 170 square meters, separate bedrooms and all sorts of amenities. Not only is the interior of the hotel spectacularly detailed, but its exterior has 51 Italian gondolas that stroll guests through a canal whose capacity is equivalent to 11 Olympic sized pools, a 48 meter high bridge (Rialto Bridge), more than 350 shops and some 30 restaurants that satisfy the most exquisite taste buds.

The Cotai Strip, a project of great magnitude

The Venetian Macao is just the tip of an iceberg called Cotai Strip, one of the future's largest hotel and leisure zones in the world. Four Seasons, Sheraton, St. Regis, Shangri-La, Traders, Hilton, Conrad, Fairmont, and Raffles are some of the 14 hotels that will administer the Cotai Strip, a total of 20,000 rooms on an area of 305,000 square meters, under the control of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Furthermore, there are numerous malls and leisure centers, as well as 30,000 seats for all the different events that will take place in the complex. This project clearly shows that, nowadays, offering people a big and beautiful casino is not sufficient, other options are also necessary. "Macao will become a considerable rival in the conventions market thanks to the hotel's unique facilities", says Dan Londero, president of the Reed Exhibitions Greater China. When the construction of the complex is concluded, its visitors will have access to approximately 2,900 tables and 16,000 slot machines, distributed around hotels with more than 20,000 rooms. At present, the hotel zone has 14,000 rooms.

Mahatma goes to the mountain

Initially, it might seem as though Macao does not have enough inhabitants to provide The Venetian Macao with a fixed income, and that speculation is true. Macao's secret for such rapid success in this industry is its location. According to a report by the CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, in total, there are 2,200 million people that live five hours away by plane from Macao. This is a very attractive number compared to the 410 million people that live in the same range of Las Vegas. In 2006, 22 million tourists visited Macao. This is why the Las Vegas Sands Corporation is working on their own ferry port between Macao and China, as well as buying 100 buses to connect the port and the hotel. Members of the company have also confirmed that they will try to establish air routes between specific points of the world and Macao, as well as organize two or three day vacation packages to promote the complex through travel agencies.

Macao, Asia's gambling Mecca

Macao is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China and was under Portuguese administration until 1999. Given casinos are forbidden in Hong Kong and continental China, Macao has become the only place where it is legal to gamble. Recently, this has lead to a spectacular growth in the region, taking it to number one in the gambling world and even overshadowing Las Vegas. This is how, in the past five years, the gambling industry has become this administrative region's primary economic force and consequently, the tourism and leisure sectors have also grown considerably. 70% of Macao's 12 billion dollar annual income comes from casino taxes. Thanks to the gambling industry, the island's economy has doubled in only four years, a process that seems to be ongoing. The gambling industry's gross income from January to July, 2007 reached the scandalous sum of 5,645,710,719 dollars. This shows a 46% increment in relation to the first six months of 2006, a feast too succulent for only one financial shark.

There is no doubt that Adelson has turned into a real nightmare for Stanley Ho, the Asian gambling magnate. When the Sand casino opened in 2004, he witnessed the end of his monopoly on the gambling sector in Macao. Stanley Ho's family rules over Macao's Gambling Society, his daughter Pansy Ho is associated with MGM (USA) and his son Lawrence works with PBL (Australia). Ho has the most gambling rooms and the highest revenue, but there are others playing the market, such as the Las Vegas Sands casinos, the Galaxy Resorts, local and Hong Konese capital, and American tycoon Steve Wynn. 

Sheldon G. Adelson's empire

Sheldon Adelson is Chairman and shareholder of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. He was born and grew up in Dorchester, a Jewish neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. According to Forbes magazine, at 74 years of age, his fortune is estimated to be 26.5 billion dollars. He is the sixth wealthiest man in the world. In 1979 he organized COMDEX in Las Vegas, the world's biggest computer trade show. It was then that he decided to buy the old Sands casino for 128 million dollars, tore it down and built the Venetian (worth 1.5 billion dollars) and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He attacked his competition (the Wynn Las Vegas) by building the Palazzo (1.8 billion dollars) next to it. He later focused his commercial objectives on Asia, opening the Sands Macau with only 265 million dollars, and investment he recovered in a year's time. He also built the Macao resorts and other projects in Singapore. 

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