Business Asia: Macau's new casino kings - 2002 Best Business Hotels In Asia Awards

MACAU, THE FORMER Portuguese colony near Hong Kong, has opened the doors of its US$2 billion ($3.9 billion) casino industry to Las Vegas billionaires Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, ending the four-decade monopoly of local tycoon Stanley Ho and putting the city on track for an investment boom. Ho was also a winner when the Government announced successful bids for three licenses last month. With 11 casinos, 10,000 staff and a tax bill that provides two-thirds of Government revenue, Ho was seen by most Macanese as sure to keep his license. Now, though, the 80-year-old tycoon has two other magnates as rivals.

Steve Wynn, the billionaire who built Las Vegas's Bellagio and Mirage casinos, said he and partners will invest at least 4 billion patacas (US$500 million) in Macau. His Wynn Resorts and other investors will probably build two casinos, one on Taipa island and another in the urban area.

Adelson will invest 8.8 billion patakas (US$1 billion) in building a 500-suite hotel, casino and convention-centre complex, as well as shops and restaurants. The highlight will be a Venetian-style street with a Grand Canal and gondolas, similar to Adelson's Venetian resort in Las Vegas. 21 companies, among them many of the world's top gaming firms, submitted bids for the licenses last November.

One of Macau's attractions is the rising wealth of the 1.3 billion people next door in China. Casinos are banned in both the mainland and Hong Kong, a major reason why those two places are Macau's main sources of visitors.

The city and its 438,000 people returned to Chinese rule in 1999, two years after Hong Kong.

Ho's Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau has had a gaming monopoly in the city since 1961. His casinos, led by the Hotel Lisboa, a gaudy, beehive-like structure on the waterfront, paid nearly US$750 million in gambling taxes last year, Ho says. That equals two-thirds of Government revenue in 2000.

The Government, though, wanted more. Faced with a property crash and the effects of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it sought fresh investment and a new image. Ho's flagship Lisboa exhibits grubby carpets, peeling walls and tattered linoleum. In the shopping arcade next door, mainland-Chinese prostitutes look for customers.