The "Monte Carlo of the Orient": gambling in Macau
The city of Macau has gotten the title of Monte Carlo of the Orient in large part because the economy relies so heavily on gambling. Macau is one of the few places in the Far East where gambling is legal, and there is a huge interest in the area in gambling. As a result millions of people every year travel to Macau to gamble.
Although gambling has certainly existed in Macau since the first people arrived in the area thousands of years ago it didn't officially begin until 1847. In an attempt to increase revenues the local Portuguese authorities began to license gambling houses. These early houses were small time affairs that would come and go fairly quickly. After a while it was realized that the revenues would be higher if things were better organized so 1937 it was decided to give out a monopoly license to one operator to control all of the gambling in the city.
The first monopoly license in Macau really didn't turn out to be as successful as authorities had hoped as the company that they gave it to really didn't take advantage of their monopoly as well as they should have. Therefore in 1962 another company was given monopoly rights over gambling in the city and this was when gambling really took over. People from all over the Far East would travel to Macau as it was one of the few places that they could gamble legally. The monopoly holder built several large casinos that really helped to attract business. As a result gambling quickly came to represent nearly half of the GDP of Macau.
In 2002 the monopoly on gambling expired and the government chose not to renew it, instead the opened the door to allow other companies to open casinos in the city. As a result many of the companies that operate the big casinos in Las Vegas moved into the city. They opened some of the largest and most spectacular casinos in the world to take advantage of the opportunities that were offered by the newly prosperous Chinese gamblers. As a result Macau is now one of the premier gambling destinations in the world.
To this day gambling represents the largest portion of Macau's revenues however there has been an effort to reduce this impact on one industry. The biggest area that they have been focusing on is non-gambling tourism. There are now plenty of people who go to Macau and don't gamble just as they do in Las Vegas. There have also been attempts to turn the city into a financial center since the laws are quite relaxed when it comes to things like banking and currency controls. Nevertheless it is anticipated that gambling will be the economic mainstay of the city for many years to come.