Published on January 2, 2014 by Terry Goodwin
The city of Macau has had a quick rise to fame within the casino gambling industry over the past decade. What was once a monopoly held by casino tycoon Stanley Ho, has turned into the largest gaming market in the world.
The revenue figures have been released for 2013, and what was once a small gap between Macau casinos and the next largest worldwide market, Las Vegas, has grown to never before seen gaps. Macau casinos brought in $45 billion, a figure even gaming companies could only have dreamed about five years ago.
Macau has not only surpassed Las vegas in terms of overall gaming revenue, but for the first time in history, the city outpaced the entire US casino market. The approximately 12,000 casinos in the US brought in $37.3 billion in 2013. The US figures do not count tribal casinos that are operated on reservations and not regulated by individual states.
It was only a few short years ago when Macau was facing a stiff challenge from the Chinese government. The government placed a restriction on visas coming from the mainland. That left many of the largest gamblers in the world stuck away from Macau. The visa restriction, however, has since been lifted and Macau has thrived since.
Record revenue figures have been seen for several years, and in 2013, the $45 billion was the most seen in one market in any given year. Analysts expect that figure to grow even higher in 2014, as many of the biggest gaming operators in the area are renovating or expanding with new properties.
Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands, was the first to take a chance on Macau during the economic recession of 2008. In the years since, MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts have joined several other US companies in entering the Macau market. All companies have thrived in what has become the model for other Asian gaming territories such as Malaysia and Singapore.
Read More... [Source: Casino Gambling News]
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