Chinese businessman Cao Yanglin let his lunch of slow-cooked beef rib with truffle puree and lemon cream sauce go cold as he talked about his gambling spree the night before at the baccarat tables in Macau -- the world's new epicenter for gambling.
The 58-year-old property developer said he won US$3,840 at the Las Vegas-style Wynn Macau casino hotel, where he was enjoying his noon meal. But he said he lost US$7,680 at the new Grand Lisboa, shaped like a giant Faberge egg covered in flashing lights.
The sting of losing so much money seemed to have faded for the smiling Cao, who resembled a TV anchorman with a deep voice, square jaw and dyed black hair. He was busy musing about the amazing changes sweeping China and how Macau would profit from the increasingly wealthy Chinese who have a reputation for wagering more than Americans.
"My father was a railroad worker who never left the country," said Cao, who is from the northern city of Tianjin, near Beijing. "But I've been to Macau more than 10 times and I've even been to Vegas. They need to have more baccarat tables there."
Gamblers like Cao have helped the city bump off the Las Vegas Strip last year as the world's gambling center. It raked in US$6.95 billion in gambling revenue, while the Strip made US$6.69 billion, regulators in both cities said.
Macau -- the only place in China where casinos are legal -- says it is just getting started. More casinos, malls, convention centers, resorts and thousands of hotel rooms are being built in the city of just over a half million residents.
Investors could be on the dream team of the global casino industry: MGM Mirage Inc, US tycoon Steve Wynn and Las Vegas Sands Corp head Sheldon Adelson. Also involved is James Packer, executive chairman of Australia's biggest media and gambling company, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. For his part, Richard Branson, of Britain's Virgin Group Ltd, has talked of investing in a casino resort.
The tycoons say they are certain that booming China will get even richer and millions of new gamblers will flood into the casinos. They plan to follow the same blueprint that successfully transformed Las Vegas from a seedy casino town to a global hot spot for dining, shows, conventions and shopping.
"Macau is the safest bet on Earth," Wynn, who opened his US$1.2 billion casino resort last September, said.
But some analysts warn of risks. China could suffer political upheaval an economic meltdown. New gambling resorts in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia could lure away visitors. Or the shoppers, conventioneers and families just might not show up as they did in Las Vegas.
"I think things could get pretty ugly there pretty fast," said Matt Hoult, a portfolio manager at ABN AMRO Asset Management who is predicting a glut in hotel rooms.
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Macau -- a peninsula and two islands -- was ruled by Portugal for 442 years before it was returned to China as a semiautonomous territory in 1999.
It has one of Asia's most intriguing and charming blends of East and West. Street signs are in Portuguese and Chinese. The signature snack is the creamy egg tart on puff pastry.
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