Tough times hit China's gambling capital, by Maureen Fan - Fairfax - 19th December 2008

The laid-off worker from Hunan province hung back from the baccarat table as his wife placed bets. He sipped water and explained how he justified travelling to this former Portuguese colony on China's southern coast - the only place in the country where gambling is legal - and blowing $US450 ($650) in savings there.

"We are not rich, so we took a train to Guangzhou first, then we took a bus to Zhuhai [bordering Macau]," Zhang, 50, who would give only one name, said as he scanned half-empty tables at the huge casino known as the Venetian Macao. "We are staying in a hotel that costs only $US15 a day, and we eat from food vendors for no more than $US3 a meal. We don't buy anything here."

Four years ago, gamblers broke down the doors of the newest casinos to race for seats. Two years ago, Macau raked in $US7 billion in annual casino revenue, surpassing the Las Vegas Strip as the world's biggest gambling centre. Officials hoped that would help transform the seedy, sleepy enclave into a convention and family entertainment centre.

But today, Communist Party officials who once welcomed US companies such as MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands, and James Packer's Crown Macau, have put the brakes on the millions of mainland visitors who flow into the territory and, like Zhang, appear to give their cash away to foreign companies without investing in Macau.

Most mainland residents, who make up more than half of Macau's visitors, are now allowed only one visit every three months, under a policy from China's Public Security Ministry. Access from Hong Kong, an hour's ferry ride away, has also been sharply restricted by Macau authorities. And mainland visitors en route to another Asian city, who used to be able to stay in Macau for two weeks, can now stay only a week.

In some establishments business has fallen by half. The number of individual tourists - those not travelling on business or as part of a tour group - fell to 470,049 in October, a 26 per cent drop from the previous October, according to Macau's Statistics and Census Service.

"From August onward, our customers have been reduced by half," said Emily Chen, manager of Macau's Seven Seas Travel Agency.

"Because most of the casinos here depend on mainland tourists, the money flows out continuously from China to foreign countries. That's why the Government wants to control it."

The Government in Beijing is also trying to get a handle on the corruption and money laundering long associated with the territory, which was returned to China in 1999. State media reports on officials caught up in bribery scandals often cite repeated visits to Macau; a former economic planner for the city of Xiangtan, in Hunan, was sentenced in May to 19 years in prison for blowing $US219,000 of public money during 36 visits there since 2002.

But authorities may also be trying to temper Macau's boom because of concerns about whether the territory was growing too quickly.

The Washington Post

(Credit: Fairfax)

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