[slimbob]

What? No Vegas?

And where is Macau?

Ok Macau is a city in China (very close to Hongkong).

Macau was part of Portugal until 1999 when it became part of China but as a special administrative zone. Macaus biggest attraction is gambling.

According to the “Bangkok Post” Thailands biggest newspaper in English Macau have “dethroned the Las Vegas Strip as the world biggest casino centre”.

Macaus revenues from gambling (casino, lotterie, dog and horse racing) was 6.95 billion US$ in 2006 and the estimated revenues from the Las Vegas Strip for 2006 are 6.57 billion US$.

Ok you may argue that the Strip is not Vegas and Macau should be compared to Vegas and not the Strip.

The revenues of Nevada for 2006 are 10.66 billion US$ for 2005 so way to go for Macau but Macau was growing at a rate of 22% in 2006 according to the Bangkok Post so its only a matter of time if you can seriously claim that Macau is the gambling capital of the world.

The Bangkok Post stated also that half of the worlds population live within 5 hours by plane- 3 billion people or 3 000 000 000!

A quote from billionaire Steve Wynn (casino owner):

“The speed of development is dizzying and the population is expending and is economically growing at a rate larger than any other part of the world.”

My own thoughts:

I see every year more tourists from China in Thailand. You may argue that most Chinese people are very poor. That is true but they have a fast growing middleclass and even if only 10% of the population can afford a trip to Macau that are more than 100 Million people.

Unfortunately Texas Holdem is not played in Macau but this will change as more and more big casino owners from Vegas will open a casino in Macau like Steve Wynn. Lots of big casinos will open in the next couple of years.

The good thing is that Chinese people are gambling crazy so thats a good chance that poker replace baccarat as the number one cardgame in Macau (may be wishful thinking but I am pretty excited about that idea!).

The good news is that I see more and more players from Asia at my table and more and more visitors from Asia who click my blog so I hope more and more players from Asia will start also live.

What do you think? Especially if you live in Asia I am interested in your opinion about the future of poker in Macau and in other asian countries like Thailand or Singapore.

slimbob