What happens in Vegas....

......can happen in Macau also?

Macau?

My first instinct was 'uh....er.....heard of it...somewhere'. My my inner voice said that such a place could exist, atleast it was phonetically possible. If a place called Alappuzha(no offense chetas, but in your defense, when people can have names like Jibin, Mobin, Cibin or Dijo then it's not weird to have places called Alappuzha) can exist, then a Macau most certainly can.

I was obviously surprised to read that this Macau place was going to give Las Vegas, yes Las Vegas, a run for its money. When did you hear something like that? Giving Las Vegas a run for its money?

Apparently that is the case.


As NYT reports, the Venetian Macao Resort, opening today is bigger and shinier than anything in Vegas.

Note the typical use of the American metric system, which provisons for every damn thing in the world to be measured in ESB or MSG - that's Empire State Building units or Madison Square Garden units(it can be fun. Like when you say India's nominal GDP is 1/200 th of the capacity of MSG, they guy behind the 3 inch thick glass will stamp your H1-B with a 'You Betcha!' smile).

And it's not the only one. Wynn is already there and MGM wants to set up shop in due time. But the biggest surprise was when, after reading only the first two paragraphs of the NYT report, I googled for Macau and got this:



Macau is in...ahem.......er, CHINA, uh-o.


So Red China and Imperial America are fighting over Vegas now. Isn't that funny? China seems to be etching closer to its new-age creed - 'Bourgeoisie of the world, unite- here in China'.

Anyways, I am not that optimistic about this Macau thing. See, Vegas, like most things that are uniquely American, for example, NY or Hollywood or Vietnam or Iraq, is something that cannot be duplicated elsewhere, sometimes even by Americans themselves. It's simply not about building a city. It's also about the people and the culture. Which is quite hard to create.

Take for instance, the dollar weilding American. Few in the world, except Vijay Mallya of course, can be as cavalier as the man from the free world. As the article says:

.......But Macao’s average gambler is still a day-tripper from Hong Kong or nearby Chinese cities in the Pearl River delta. These visitors are so frugal that they often bring their own food and do not rent hotel rooms. They spend an average of just 1.26 days in the territory — and even that average is inflated by the many Hong Kong residents who work in Macao Monday through Friday and go home on weekends.

By contrast, the average visitor to Las Vegas spends 3.4 days.

Bring their own food! Oriental gambling ishtyle! HOLY!

As for the culture, one may question what culture can Vegas claim to represent. Fair enough. It's called the Sin City. Gambling Town. But hey, that is what Vegas was built to offer. An escape. And it's amazing how the people who live in and around that town, with the same moral and ethical values as you and me, have come together to keep the city true to its spirit. Vegas is Vegas because it's in the middle of the United States of Freaking America. Anywhere else in the world, it would have been a ghost town in the middle of a desert.

Why? See below:

“........If you look at Macao, there are no or virtually no nongaming revenues,” whereas nongambling revenues exceed gambling revenues in Las Vegas, said William P. Weidner, the president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands.

Non-gaming revenues. Hmm. See the picture? Get the picture?

Macau. Do you copy that?