Photo : FAFP

June 1, 2006 – HONG KONG (AFP) – Macau, southern China's gambling Mecca, has posted record casino revenues for the first quarter of 2006 amid expectations it has already eclipsed Las Vegas' bumper takings.The 19 casinos in the former Portuguese enclave, 40 kilometres (26 miles) west of Hong Kong, chalked up 12.7 billion patacas (1.62 billion US dollars) in takings for the three months to March, the city's census department statistics show.

That figure was up 8.0 percent on the 11.7 billion patacas the industry pulled in during the final three months of 2005, also a record quarter.

The results came days after analysts at a gaming conference in Nevada said they thought Macau's earnings had overtaken those of the scores of casinos on Las Vegas' strip.

While official figures show the city's casinos equalled the 5.6 billion US dollars taken on the Vegas Strip last year, analysts suspect that under-reporting means Macau probably outstripped the US gambling haven by two billion US dollars.

Macau's once ailing casino industry has mushroomed since the government wrested a 40-year monopoly from Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho and allowed foreign operators into the century-old market.

Las Vegas Sands was first to capitalise on the new laws with its successful Sands Macau.

It is now leading a construction boom in the city, where some 25 new casino and hotel resorts planned for the Cotai Strip gaming district being built on a 100,000 square metres plot of reclaimed land.

The gambling explosion has been fuelled by China's relaxation of travel restrictions on its citizens, some 18 million of whom journeyed to Macau last year.

The city's gamblers are ranked among the most profligate in the world, with 90 US dollars spent in bets for every 10 US dollars spent in Las Vegas.

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