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Macau; The Asian Casino Mecca

Macau also known as the Asian Las Vegas is the Mecca for all casino lovers who cannot get enough of gambling their night away. Here we will present you with the history of this famous island territory which is located just 70km from Hong Kong off the southern coast of China.

Macau used to be a Portuguese colony and the Portuguese settled in Macau somewhere in between 1553 and 1557. Macau is now booming with the casino and gambling industry, but back then it boomed because of its trading relations with Europe and Japan. What is now the second largest sin city in the world because of the casinos, used to be the base of the introduction of Christianity to China and Japan. As rich as Macau is now due to the casinos, it was also then popular because it quickly became rich through the monopolized trade and the introduction of Christianity.

When in 1841 the British settled in Hong Kong, the popularity of Macau declined because Hong Kong soon became the economic giant of China. Although Hong Kong's status rose, Macau remained an important part in distributing all kinds of goods such as fish and rice.

Now Macau was able to establish itself and differentiate itself from everything else in China and this Macau did through the establishments of casinos. For half a decade, all the casinos and establishments in Macau were owned by Stanley Ho. He established the Sociedade do Jogos de Macau which is Portuguese for Macau Gaming Society. He held the monopoly on all the casinos of Macau until the law of gambling was liberalized.

Now Macau is proud to have three main casino-operating owners recognized as Stanley Ho, Hong Kong based Galaxy and Wynn Resorts. Only these three have so far established casinos and resorts in Macau. Top names on the list of casino hotels that have been established in Macau are Wynn Macau, MGM Grand Macau, Galaxy Waldo Casino Hotel, and the five-star Pousada de Sao Tiago hotel. This is just a small fraction of the actual number of casinos that are in Macau and all of these casino hotels in Macau are just as luxurious and as grand as in Las Vegas, and Macau has indeed an edge over Las Vegas. Since Macau was colonized by the Portuguese and had only been given back to the People's Republic of China in 1999, the Portuguese flair and the strong influence have remained.

The island territory of Macau glistened and grew with the colonization of the Portuguese who improved their economy and status, and now Macau is the Asian Mecca for casinos and will eventually outshine Las Vegas.