MACAO:Flamboyant billionaire Sheldon Adelson unveils his 'Disneyland for adults', reports Clifford Coonan
The former Portuguese colony of Macao raised the stakes in its bid to overtake Las Vegas as the world's top adult playground this week with the opening of the world's largest casino, the Venetian Macao, on a chunk of reclaimed land known as the Cotai Strip.
Smashing a bottle of champagne against the black prow of a gondola, the €1.8 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel was inaugurated by Sheldon Adelson, the 75-year-old billionaire son of a Boston taxi driver and self-proclaimed craps shooter extraordinaire.
Las Vegas Sands claims the Venetian Macao, which is twice the size of the Las Vegas original, is the largest building in Asia and the second-largest in the world after the Boeing plant in the US.
You get the feeling the world's 14th richest man is not bluffing when he says he is confident he will recoup his money within three to five years on the resort he calls "Disneyland for adults".
"Today is the beginning of what has been a dream of mine for some time, to reproduce the capital of entertainment in Asia for Asians," said the famously flamboyant Mr Adelson.
The gondola will work on one of three indoor canals in the resort - which is two more than the Venetian in Las Vegas - a riot of faux classical Italian architecture, marble floors, frescoes, fountains and gold statues.
The Venetian boasts 3,000 hotel suites, 1,150 gaming tables, 7,000 slot machines, 350 shops, an 1,800-seat conference centre and a 15,000-seat entertainment arena.
Add to this, fine dining and a Cirque du Soleil-produced show with Venice-inspired design tempered with Chinese elegance, gondolas and sampans, as well as a replica of Venice's St Mark's Square.
Understated is not the word.
The Venetian's resort, casino and retail operations will initially employ 16,000 people, rising to 70,000 people, or one-quarter of Macao's working population, when all projects are finished at the end of 2009.
The strongest suit in Macao's hand is its proximity to mainland China, which is awash with new money, and the fact that gambling is illegal in China - a potent combination which has seen the take at Macao's tables soar in recent years.
Gaming revenues in Macao, perched on the southern tip of China, outstripped those of Vegas last year and gaming analysts believe that if the Venetian is a success - and no one doubts that it will be - annual gaming revenues could reach €10 billion by the end of this decade.
At present, most of the 20 million visitors who come to Macao arrive from China, spend a short stay gambling, then leave. They often don't even book into hotels - many, if they sleep, might do it in one of the many massage parlours.
With new facilities like the Venetian, the Macao government and the casino moguls hope the gamblers will stay a bit longer and spend a bit of cash on something other than gambling.
Over a dozen hotel, casino and retail operators are building on the Cotai Strip, which is four square kilometres of land fusing the islands of Coloane and Taipa.
Building this planned "neon alley" is going to cost €18 billion and other investors on the Cotai Strip include MGM Mirage and Macao Studio City.
For 40 years Macao was the exclusive preserve of tycoon Stanley Ho, but the market was opened up in 2002 and the Vegas boys moved in, with the launch of Adelson's first investment, the Sands Macao, in 2004. Within a year it had paid for itself.
Ho's market share dipped, but he is fighting back with the Grand Lisboa, a luxurious casino aimed squarely at Chinese punters which launched in February.
There are fears that Macao's infrastructure won't be able to cope and that Cotai will bring too many hotel rooms and baccarat tables into the mix.
The increased competition has cause Steve Wynn, Adelson's fiercest rival, to rein in expansion plans for Macao. He will build a 2,300sq m expansion to his Wynn Macao casino this year instead of the planned 11,400sq m.
However, in Macao these are seen as short-term concerns, well-rehearsed arguments that didn't worry the thousands who queued to get into the new Venetian as soon as doors opened. After all, this is a gambling town where people are happy to take a chance, even on Macao's future.