20
Popular Culture Review
large projects on the island of Taipa and in the reclaimed area between Taipa
and Coloane islands called the Cotai Strip.
Jobs are plentiful in Macau today. Labor is being imported to work on
all the construction. Tourism is at an all-time high. In 2004, the number of
visitors to Macau totaled 16 million. In the first seven months of 2005, a record
10.5 million visitors arrived, up 14.4 percent from the same period last year
(Renters). Predictions are that the visitor total may well hit 20 million for 2005
(Asia Times Online).
The Emergence of a New Gambling Mecca
The competition sparked by the end of the monopoly in gambling has
dramatically changed the picture in Macau. The older casinos owned by Stanley
Ho were relatively small, smoky, unimpressive facilities that served the serious,
mostly male card-playing gamblers who came across the border from mainland
China, or by ferry from Hong Kong. Generally, patrons came for the day, and
few stayed for any length of time at the hotels.
Currently, Stanley Ho still owns 15 of Macau’s 17 operating casinos.
These include his flagship hotel casino, the Lisboa, and the recently built Casino
New Century-Greek Mythology on Tapia. Both are much more impressive than
the smaller, older Ho casinos.
The first Las Vegas style casino, the $320 million Sands Macau,
opened on May 18, 2004. It looks similar, inside and out, to an upscale Las
Vegas Strip casino but is very different from the older Macau casinos. It is
located near the ferry to take advantage of day visitors. The 163,000 square foot
casino features 848 slots and 360 table games. The facility also includes two
restaurants and a small, but elegant, 51-suite hotel for high-roller clients. The
Sands Macau has turned out to be a spectacular success. Fifteen thousand people
gathered to enter the casino as the doors opened for the first time (Time Asia).
One year from opening, on June 13, 2005, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation
announced that the casino had already paid for itself, and all of its outstanding
debt had been retired. The Sands Macau is on track to generate over $320
million in pretax cash flow in the year ahead, more than the tota