Wall Street Journal – Macau gambling company Galaxy Entertainment Group said Wednesday that it recently signed a framework agreement to build a 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) resort on a nearby island China hopes to transform into a thriving city at the heart of the Pearl River Delta. Unlike Galaxy’s megaresorts in Macau, which has ballooned into a $45 billion gambling market, this project wouldn’t have a casino. The rationale for building the resort, the first such project set to be built by one of Macau’s six casino operators, is to complement Galaxy’s business in the territory, differentiate it from…

The Telegraph – With 43 varieties of pillow, 150-year-old bottles of cognac and breathtaking, neon-lit views, no expense is spared for high rollers at the Las Vegas of the East. At the entrance to the Galaxy casino, elegant Filipina glamour models usher gamblers past a giant model diamond into a world of palm-lined artificial beaches and £48-a-time cocktails. This is Macau, a former Portuguese colony on China’s southern coast that in just over a decade has become the undisputed global king of the casino. It is also a world of money laundering, corruption, human trafficking and over-indulgence that stands in…

Macau Business Daily – Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen says there “should be no increase” in the number of gaming concessionaires – six at present – allowed in the city’s gaming market following the expiry of the current permits in 2020 and 2022. He was speaking during his trip to Beijing. “The government has not determined whether [the gaming concessions] should be renewed for five years. The government has no stance on this matter,” added Mr Tam. “But it is impossible for the government to have no stance on all issues [regarding the renewal of…

Business Week – In the 1990s, Macau’s gambling riches sparked bloody gunfights between triad gangsters vying for control of private gaming rooms for China’s wealthy. Today, there’s a new conflict brewing, only this time it’s being waged with private jets, limousines, and million-dollar loans. This latest battle pits casinos against their longtime allies, so-called junket operators that for years have recruited rich gamblers in China, whisked them to Macau, put them up in luxury hotels, and extended interest-free loans to circumvent limits on cash they can take out of the mainland. In the early years after China allowed foreign gaming…

VOA News – A number of countries in Asia are considering relaxing their gambling legislation to cash in on an expanding pool of wealthy gamers from the world’s most populous and fastest growing nations. This may pose a possible threat to the world’s biggest gambling center, Macau. According to some, 2014 could be the year Japan legalizes gambling. The country’s ruling party has submitted a bill to the parliament.  If it goes through, which many expect to happen, it could turn Japan into the world’s second largest gambling market. But the country is far from the only one in Asia…

From Huffington Post. – Most people still think of the U.S. gambling industry as anchored in Las Vegas. They might think of vestiges of the mob, or the town’s ill-advised flirtation with family-friendly branding in the 1990s. But they would be wrong. The center of the gambling world has shifted 16 time zones away to a tiny spit of land on the southern tip of East Asia. An hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong and an afternoon flight from half the world’s population, Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Each month, 2.5 million tourists…

The Venetian Macau, located in a former Portuguese colony and a currently a special administrative region under the People’s Republic of China, is known as a gambling mecca. Macau’s gambling industry attracts millions of tourists from all over Asia, particularly China each year, and comprises more than 50% of the national GDP. The gambling revenues of Macau surpass those of Las Vegas by many folds, and the Venetian Macau is a major contributor to these revenues. As the largest casino in the world, the Venetian is more than just another casino resort. The International Indian Film Academy Awards, IIFA, this…

From Reuters Gambling revenue in Macau rose 21.1 percent in June year-on-year, buoyed by a steady flow of wealthy mainland gamblers eager to place their bets in the Chinese controlled casino hub. June revenue stood at 28.3 billion patacas ($3.54 billion), according to government data released on Monday. Analysts had forecast June growth in the world’s biggest gambling market, to be up 18-21 percent. Macau is the only place where Chinese people can legally gamble at casinos in the country. Home to half a million people, Macau depends on high spending VIP gamblers, or ‘whales’, who spend 1 million yuan…