Macau to overtake Las Vegas by 2007

[The Judge]

Macau to overtake Las Vegas by 2007
Thu Aug 3, 11:23 AM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Booming Macau will leap-frog the world famous Las Vegas Strip as the world's strongest casino market this year, analysts said, predicting its gaming halls will generate 8 billion dollars by 2007.

With more than 20 billion dollars worth of investment committed to some 25 new hotels and casinos in the next five years the southern Chinese territory is expected to emerge as a world-class tourism destination, according to analysts Globalysis.

"We believe that Macaus (revenue) will surpass that experienced on the Las Vegas Strip in 2006, signalling Macaus success as a global casino gaming destination," it said in a statement.

While it gave no forecasts for Las Vegas revenues, the dozens of glitzy casinos on the strip earned just below 6 billion dollars in 2005.

The company stressed Macau was still some way from eclipsing all of Las Vegas' hundreds of casinos, which brought in 9.1 billion dollars in 2005.

Globalysis said Macau's mushrooming gaming business would be boosted by growth in casino-tourism related sector.

"Macau will continue its transformation into a holistic leisure tourism destination in 2007," Globalysis partner Jonathon Galaviz said in a statement.

"We believe that Macau's casino gaming revenue in 2007 will be driven by substantial growth in non-casino amenities such as new convention center venues and innovative entertainment options incorporated into Macau's fresh Las Vegas style integrated resorts."

Macau's century-old casino sector was resuscitated from years of crippling decline in 2001 when the Chinese-backed government of the former Portuguese enclave wrested a 40-year operations monopoly from ageing tycoon Stanley Ho.

The move brought in a flood of American investment, principally from Las Vegas Sands -- operator of the phenomenally successful Venetian resort -- which reversed the city's ailing fortunes when it opened the Sands Macau in 2004.

Sands Thursday posted record quarterly growth for the three months to June 2006, with pre-tax profits up 52.7 percent to 117 million dollars, a company statement said.

Growth in Macau would not have been possible without a coincidental relaxation of travel restrictions on Chinese tourists, which boosted visitors to the tiny territory to a record 18 million in 2005.

According to Globalysis, most of the investment committed to Macau over the next five years is destined for the Cotai Strip, a gaming district under construction by the Sands corporation on a 100,000 square-metre plot of reclaimed land.

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