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Some 60
kilometers southwest of
Hong Kong is the former Portuguese colony of
Macau.
With a total land area of 28.6 sq km, it is smaller than
Mayor Alfredo Lim’s City of Manila, which covers 38.55
sq km. Macau has a population of a little over half a
million, less than a third of the Philippine capital
city’s official count of 1.5 million people.
So how
could such a tiny spit of land have generated over $17
billion as gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006? That
kind of GDP makes for a per-capita income of
$28,853—again in 2006 American dollars. Macau’s economy
has been growing at over 13 percent annually—tracking
and sometimes leading the consistently robust growth
rates of the entire Chinese economy.
If he
were still alive, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping—who
almost single-handedly modernized his country by
adopting “socialism with Chinese characteristics”—would
probably be overjoyed that Macau has been living up to
his dictum, “To be rich is glorious.”
What
made such impressive economic figures possible is
gambling—or, its more polite variant, “gaming.” Casinos
are what have made this special administration region a
Chinese cash cow since Lisbon formally returned it to
Beijing in 1999.
To be
sure, Macau has other sources of income, such as some
light industries that include garment and textile
factories. Its history as the oldest—and last—European
colony on Chinese soil has produced a culture that
appeals to millions of sightseers, both Chinese and
foreign. There is little doubt, however, that the bulk
of 25 million tourists who went to Macau last year alone
made a beeline to its casinos. And projections are
tourist traffic—both from the mainland, where illegal
gambling can earn an offender three years in prison, and
overseas—is bound to keep growing. Of course, it has not
always been that way.
The
history of the gaming industry in Macau can be traced to
1962, when the Portuguese colonial authorities issued a
monopoly license to the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversőes
de Macau (STDM), headed by the legendary Stanley Ho. His
classic Hotel Lisboa and its opulent extension across
the street, the lotus-shaped Grand Lisboa, still
dominate the skyline of Macau’s old section. However,
Macau—and China as a whole—hit the jackpot when the
Chinese authorities decided to give Ho some competition.
The
Macau government ended the monopoly system in 2002. Six
casino concessions and subconcessions were granted to
STDM, Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Galaxy
Entertainment Group, the partnership of MGM Mirage and
Pansy Ho Chiu-king and the partnership of Melco and PBL.
Stanley
Ho’s STDM continues to operate 16 casinos, which are
still considered crucial to Macau’s casino industry. In
2004, however, the opening of the Sands Macau ushered in
a new, more profitable era.
At its
opening the Sands Macau was hailed as the largest casino
in the world, as measured by total number of table
games. After the Wynn Macau threw its doors open in
2006, gambling revenue from
Macau’s casinos surpassed for the first time that of the Las Vegas
Strip’s $6 billion or so. Since then,
Macau
has become the highest-volume gambling center in the
world.
Success
breeds success, and keeps on doing so. In 2007 the
Venetian Macau—the second-largest building in the
world—opened its doors to the public, followed by MGM
Grand Macau. Many other hotel casinos, including Galaxy
Cotai Megaresort and Ponte 16, are similarly set to open
in the very near future—going by the relentless pace of
construction at
Macau’s reclamation areas.
Officially, Filipinos make up 2 percent of
Macau’s population. They are employed not just in the casinos, but
also in hotels, restaurants, transport companies, retail
outlets and wherever there is a need for amiable,
hard-working and English-speaking staff. However, there
are probably even more Filipinos in
Macau
working “informally.”
That
Filipinos make up a significant portion of Macau’s
casino work force—and, for that matter, in the US gaming
centers of Atlantic City, Reno and Las Vegas—has its
parallels in, say, our merchant marine. The Philippines
deploys the largest number of seamen across the
globe—mainly because it does not have a big enough
maritime industry to employ them.
Some of
our expatriate manpower and talent in the gaming
establishments of Macau—and even Nevada and New
Jersey—may finally be able to come home and still earn a
decent living in the not-too-distant future.
After
making investors—along with thousands of job-hungry
Filipinos—wait for what must have felt like an eternity,
the state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor)
finally gave the go-signal to four investors ready,
willing and able to put up a world-class gaming center
in Manila.
As this
paper reported yesterday, what has been envisioned as a
Las Vegas-like Bagong Nayong Pilipino-Manila Bay
Integrated City took another step closer to reality.
Japan’s Aruze Corp., Genting Berhad of Malaysia, SM
Investments Corp. and
Australia’s Bloombery Investments Ltd. were given the
go-ahead to put up their respective multibillion-dollar
projects at the 90-hectare resort complex.
Pagcor
has approved the project proposals of the four groups,
with total investments of about $10 billion spread over
three to five years.
When
fully operational—the earliest by 2010—the integrated
resort facility is projected to raise the country’s
gaming revenue by at least 30 percent. It is also
expected to boost foreign tourist arrivals by up to
three million travelers annually, and generate over
250,000 new jobs.
Pagcor
aims to use the Bagong Nayong Pilipino as a catalyst to
sustain the growth of the country’s tourism industry. It
hopes to attract at least $4 billion in investments.
Fears
that the envisioned gambling center would further erode
Filipinos’ public morals seem to be unfounded.
Similar—but not as grand—gaming operations have actually
been operating for several years now in Ilocos Norte,
Cagayan, La Union, Rizal and the old US military bases
at Clark and Subic Bay. The bulk of their clientele is
foreign—including spillovers from Macau.
Besides,
the potential of the Manila Bay Strip for boosting
tourist traffic is enormous. There are certainly more
attractions for sightseers in this country than the
ex-Portuguese colony’s church ruins. |
