Move over Vegas – Macau is now the main game

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

I think I have seen Casino, the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie, at least three or four times. But watching it last week – fresh from my return from The Venetian Macao and living in a place where the words “IR” have become part of the national vocabulary, it really struck home.

In particular, the lines uttered towards the end by Sam Rothstein (played by Robert de Niro) when he talks about the end of an era for Las Vegas, following the “implosion” of the Tangiers Casino which he ran.

“The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior’s college money on the poker slots.”

Rothstein could of course be talking about Macau, for it is clear “the town will never be the same again”.

The Venetian Macao, with its scale and ambition, has taken gambling in Macau to a whole new level. Yes, there’s also the exhibitions bit, and the conventions, and the entertainment, and the food, and the shops, and the gondolas – but the heartbeat of it is still wrapped around the roll of a dice, or a coin in a slot, or a chip on the right colour or the right number.

It’s a heartbeat you feel from the moment you step into the resort. As in Las Vegas, to get to your suite, you have to walk past the gaming floor. It’s like shopping centres; they are designed to ensure you walk past every shop to get to each floor.

Roll up, roll up, walk through the Hall of Temptation, stroll through the Field of Dreams and weave your way through the Labyrinth of Hope. The floor is alive with noise and chatter as punters stake their earnings on the tables. The blue colour of smoke fills the air.

Around each table, punters gather. At each slot machine is a human being whose arm is on auto-pilot and whose eyes only come alive with every “ka-chink” of the screen. The crowd seems younger, better-dressed, than the old crowd at the old Lisboa.

This is the new rich of China hoping to become the new richer. I am told they’ve had more families with children than they have anticipated. Children are thankfully not allowed near the gambling zone – not too old to shop but certainly too young to wager – and so they’ve had to open up new walkways to cater to this unexpected custom.

In Singapore, I have lost count of the cranes that dot the site that will be Marina Bay Sands. I am told the Singapore IR will be of a higher quality, more refined and more elegant than its Macau counterpart to cater to a more discerning clientele.

Singaporeans after all have to prove they are above a certain wage level before they can be allowed into the casino.

Here’s the other difference between Macau and Singapore. In Macau, it’s more like “build and they will come and we will try to handle it”. In Singapore, it’s “we will build before they come so we can make sure we can handle it”.

The infrastructure in Macau is woefully lacking to cater to the business The Venetian is expected to bring in to fill its mammoth spaces. There are not enough ferries. Its ferry terminal is inadequate. Its airport is adequate but there are still not enough direct flights coming in. Its road network is being developed, but you can feel the strain.

In Singapore, the Marina Bay Sands is getting its own access by road and by train. Changi’s Terminal 3 will open in January next year.

It has been predicted that even with the 4,300 rooms that will come online with the Marina Bay Sands, Resorts World@Sentosa and the other confirmed hotel projects, Singapore would still be short of 4,000 rooms in 2010.

That’s because the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is predicting a 25% spike in arrivals between 2009 and 2010, which means an additional 2.7 million visitors in 2009, with an average length of stay of 3.4 to 3.6 days, which means an extra 50,000 visitors a day at any one time.

Guess that’s another town that will never be the same again.

Say it again, Sam.

Catch up with Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe