Macau’s boom trumps skeptics

There’s no room left to argue about the success of Macau. Optimism about Macau and gaming across Asia dominated last week’s Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E Asia) in the world’s gaming capital.

The annual conference and trade show was also an opportunity to showcase the new Galaxy Macau resort that’s the most daring attempt since the Venetian Macao to transform the character of the Macau market from gaming-centric day trippers. In its four years, the Venetian has become a local landmark and tourist touchstone, but it’s done little to alter the composition and direction of Macau’s growth. This year, as I reported in Asia Times, gaming revenue is on track to surpass five times the take of the Las Vegas Strip.

You can’t dispute numbers like that, but smart investors and observers can ask how much they know about what’s behind those numbers.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, financial crisis, and cheap lingerie.

Tags: Blacksmith Books, G2E Asia, Galaxy Macau, gaming in Asia, gaming in Macau, Global Gaming Expo Asia 2011, Hong Kong, Hong Kong On Air, Las Vegas gaming, Las Vegas Strip, Macau, Macau casinos, Venetian Macao