When Portugal controlled Macao it was known as the ‘Monte Carlo of the Orient’ and Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) had a monopoly on casinos. Under Chinese control Macau has become the ‘Asia Las Vegas’ and the monopoly has been broken.

New licences have been issued and new casinos built along a strip of land to mimic the ‘Strip’ in Nevada. More are in the process of being built. One such development will be by SJM and Macau Success Limited.

Macau Success is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the company has a 600 passenger cruise ship named, of course, MV Macau Success as well as a wholly owned subsidiary Travel Success that offers “travel services and one-stop solutions to corporations and up-market leisure travellers.”

Macau Success Limited is expanding into hotel, entertainment and property related businesses in Hong Kong and Macau. Part of this expansion will be to build a theme park in Macau’s Inner Harbour area, at the cost of some HK$1.2 billion (US$154.4 million). The company has some experience with casinos as their cruise ship caters for around 100 players with tables and slot machines. However, the more than 100 gaming tables proposed for the theme park will be run by SJM. The project includes a 250-room hotel, large shopping arcade and a cultural centre, and construction should be completed by the end of 2006.

Macau is a small area of land, 27.3 square kilometres and has a population of some 454,000. Dwarfing the number of locals is the number of tourists, 11 million last year and expected to rise to 15 million this. The People’s Republic of China has relaxed the old travel restrictions to allow its residents to cross into Macau freely, making the border crossing between Zhuhai and Macau one of the busiest in the world.

In 1983 it was first proposed by Hong Kong developer Gordon Wu to build a bridge to link Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai. The proposal for the 29-kilometre bridge has been long delayed but in 2003 the Advance Coordination Group was established. The Y-shaped bridge would be the second longest in the world, and the preliminary studies should be completed by the end of this year and construction started.

On the gaming front, Macau is changing from its old hard gambling image to a more family oriented one. Entertainment complexes will replace the gambling halls in order to attract visitors of all age groups. The SJM / Macau Success theme park should fit right in.

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