MacauWorld On the weekend we went to Macau - a friend needed to leave Hong Kong so he could get his new working visa stamped and come back in again, so we took the opportunity to go and see how it's changed in the past twelve months.

Last time we went there we weren't that impressed - it was hot, dusty and noisy due to all the construction of new casinos and hotels. This time around I have to say it was much better - but the overall feeling I got was that Macau has just made the transition to being a gated theme park.

A large part of the construction is finished and the new casinos are humming, full of Mainland and Hong Kong tourists all gambling heavily. Apparently there are now more gaming tables in Macau then there are in Las Vegas, which is pretty incredible. And in true Las Vegas style the tables are housed in casinos which leave no stone unturned in the race to be the biggest, brightest, most outrageous. Case in the point - the new Grand Lisboa Casino. Designed in the shape of a lotus plant, it's not finished yet (the hotel par anyway) but you can already get an idea of how impressively ugly it will be.



By contrast the Wynn Casino is relatively restrained - a fairly simple curving structure, and the interior is less obviously kitschy. But it's still fairly crazy:



There are still a few casinos to be built and finished, and the New Venetian (which will include a fairly faithful reproduction of Venice outside it) is yet to open, so there is still a feeling of things not quite being done - but basically Macau is now the biggest casino resort in this hemisphere. Any other reason this community existed is now gone - the only reason you would come here would be to gamble and do some of the associated things that go with casino resorts. Welcome to MacauWorld^TM.

Labels: casino, macau

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