several big Vegas casinos combined

In terms of floor size, the largest physical casino in the world is The Venetian Macau (China). It's huge. How huge? Imagine combining the MGM Grand (156,023 square feet) with Bellagio (159,760) and Caesars Palace (131,095). And then throw in a dinky little place like Planet Hollywood (97,095). The casino floor at The Venetian Macau is bigger than all of them combined!

The folks at The Venetian Macau have used their 550,000 square feet efficiently: gaming revenue at The Venetian Macau in 2009 was $1.69 billion (US dollars). Gaming revenue on the entire Las Vegas Strip in 2009 was $5.5 billion.

Quote: reno

The folks at The Venetian Macau have used their 550,000 square feet efficiently:

Its exciting too. About 700 baccarat tables, with half of them empty (but with idle dealers) at any given time. A few hundred slots, a few BJ and poker tables, a few roulette wheels. Real exciting.. Its not unusual for a hundred bac dealers to have no players at their tables for their entire shift. They just stand there, staring into space, for 8 or 10 hours.

How is that efficient?

Quote: EvenBob

...About 700 baccarat tables, with half of them empty (but with idle dealers) at any given time. A few hundred slots, a few BJ and poker tables, a few roulette wheels. Real exciting.. Its not unusual for a hundred bac dealers to have no players at their tables for their entire shift. They just stand there, staring into space, for 8 or 10 hours.

If this is true, it's impressive that they take in $1.69 billion with a few hundred slots and hundreds of empty tables with no customers.


DJTeddyBear: "How is that efficient?"

Because revenue at The Venetian Macau alone was about 30% of the revenue of the entire Las Vegas Strip, and there are 24 major casinos on the Strip.

Quote: reno

If this is true, it's impressive that they take in $1.69 billion with a few hundred slots and hundreds of empty tables with no customers.

Who says they have no customers? All Macau casinos are like that, even in the States you'll see 3 crowded bac tables and 2 that have no players. Superstition.

What all this tells me is how much of a problem gambling is for Asians, esp. the Chinese.

Quote: JerryLogan

What all this tells me is how much of a problem gambling is for Asians, esp. the Chinese.

Gambling affects all cultures. I would suspect the risk taking mentality and allure of a dollar won = twice earned is ubiquitous. When you walk into a casino, you see all races. I think the bad PR comes from the fact that there are over 1.2 billion chinese people in the world. Throw in about billion indians and you can it might seem disproportionate to the number of other races. If you opened up a casino anywhere in the world, you'd attract locals. Open one in Singapore, and who do you expect to walk through the door? Open up a casino in middle America, same thing.

Quote: reno

If this is true, it's impressive that they take in $1.69 billion with a few hundred slots and hundreds of empty tables with no customers.


DJTeddyBear: "How is that efficient?"

Because revenue at The Venetian Macau alone was about 30% of the revenue of the entire Las Vegas Strip, and there are 24 major casinos on the Strip.

Gambling revenue is very high in Macau compared to the strip. What is interesting is that they are averaging about 1/2 as many visitors as Las Vegas.

Total gaming revenue for 2009, Sands Corp is $3.5b
$1,699,599 The Venetian Macao
$1,003,042 Sands Macao
--$207,191 Four Seasons Macao
--$473,176 Las Vegas Operating Properties
--$141,790 Sands Bethlehem

Sands corporate wide gaming revenue could rival that of the Vegas Strip as soon as 2011. The company is currently constructing a 6,400-room complex at the COTAI STRIP, which will feature the Shangri-La, Traders, Sheraton, and St. Regis hotel brands.

The only problem seems to be that China has refused their request to build two more casinos on the COTAI strip. Will they expand into Korea, or Vietnam. How about India, or Europe. Johannesberg?

The Singapore model may be too exciting to resist. I mean one or two casinos that are tourist attractions first, and gambling meccas second. I could see some ambitious cities soliciting Sands Corporation based on this model.

Fiumicino (the seaside home Leonardo Da Vinci airport, the 5th busiest in Europe which is only 21 miles from Rome) is a good place for a casino. It is less than a 1000 miles from capitals of Europe, 1500 miles from Moscow, and 2700 miles from Dubai. Seaside location, and easy access to a great city without the casino ruining the city.


Estonia has embraced gaming with 139 mini casinos. A corner of Hungary near Austria and Slovakia has been trying to become Euro-Vegas.

Quote: pacomartin

Fiumicino (the seaside home Leonardo Da Vinci airport, the 5th busiest in Europe which is only 21 miles from Rome) is a good place for a casino. It is less than a 1000 miles from capitals of Europe, 1500 miles from Moscow, and 2700 miles from Dubai. Seaside location, and easy access to a great city without the casino ruining the city.

Monaco has dominated the Mediterranean casino market for many years. I suspect the conservative religious climates in Italy and India will prevent major casinos from gaining footholds there.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I suspect the conservative religious climates in Italy and India will prevent major casinos from gaining footholds there.

There is no conservative religious climate in Italy. Have you been there? That vanished in WWII. Those people lined up outside the Vatican are all from Africa and Eastern Europe.

An untapped market wherein the former bureaucrats are now capitalists so the market is awash with the newly rich and there are only a very few suicides in the factories by those who are destined to be overworked drones all their lives. Its not difficult to have a profitable casino for people who previously couldn't travel and had no money.

Hundreds of empty tables? When you have no wage costs so what if the tables are empty. If there is a sudden surge in gamblers you are ready, if not, so what? I wonder if these casinos even had growth projections that factored in their wage costs? The cost of the table, the cost of the chips.. but wages? I truly wonder. The dealers know they can always go back to the suicide inducing factories if they don't stand there smiling at an empty table.

Estonia legislating limits on the number of casinos? Sure. You let in the thieves and then they vote for limits on any new competitors.

Quote: pacomartin

There is no conservative religious climate in Italy. Have you been there? That vanished in WWII. Those people lined up outside the Vatican are all from Africa and Eastern Europe.

I have not been there. However, the influence of the Roman Catholic church cannot be denied. According to the State Department, 85% of native born Italians are nominally Roman Catholic.

The "World Casino Guide" website lists five casinos in Italy. Most are located on border resort locations, and two are in Venice. Casinos have have limited hours, or restrictions on entry by local residents. At least one requires registration, including a photograph, for entry. This does not appear to be a climate open to large scale expansion by international corporations.