Macau hits $23.5-billion jackpot in 2010; outstrips Las Vegas by four times

Casinos in Macau cashed in a record $ 23.5 billion US last year, according to official figures Monday, which analysts said trumped the Las Vegas Strip by about four times.

The revenue figure was a 57.8% increase over 2009, cementing the former Portuguese colony as the world’s biggest gaming hub, thanks largely to the millions of mainland Chinese punters who descend on it each year.

 

But the governments of China and its special region of Macau are growing worried about the vast sums of money flowing into the city’s economy and have already imposed several restrictions to try and cap its runaway growth.

Macau’s huge jackpot comes even as regional rivals including Singapore have opened glitzy new casinos to grab a chunk of the massive Asian market. Some industry experts have predicted Asia will eclipse the entire US gaming market over the next few years.

Macau’s casinos raked in 188.3 billion patacas ($ 23.5 billion) in 2010, compared with 119.3 billion patacas in 2009, the city’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said. That total is about four-times higher than the $6 billion that gamblers are thought to have spent on the Las Vegas Strip in 2010, according to Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA.

The Chinese territory also set a new monthly record in December, raking in 18.88 billion patacas, about 66.4% higher than a year earlier. “We were not expecting it to be so strong in December,” Aaron Fischer, a CLSA gaming analyst said.

“We thought it would fall off a bit in the last few weeks but it didn’t. Historically, Christmas is not a big gambling time.” The gaming boomtown’s revenue is driven largely by high-roller gamblers, including many wealthy Chinese tourists who have been riding high on the country’s surging economy, he said.