A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sports.
Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. With a population of about 710,000 people and a land area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.
Macau is a special administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. It was leased to Portugal in 1557 as a trading post in exchange for a symbolic annual rent of 500 tael. Despite remaining under Chinese sovereignty and authority, the Portuguese came to consider and administer Macau as a de facto colony. Following the signing of the Treaty of Nanking between China and Britain in 1842, and the signing of treaties between China and foreign powers during the 1860s, establishing the benefit of "the most favoured nation" for them, the Portuguese attempted to conclude a similar treaty in 1862, but the Chinese refused, owing to a misunderstanding over the sovereignty of Macau. In 1887 the Portuguese finally managed to secure an agreement from China that Macau was Portuguese territory. In 1999 it was handed over to China. Macau was the last extant European territory in continental Asia.
The economy of Macau is a highly developed market economy. Macau's economy has remained one of the most open in the world since its handover to China in 1999. Apparel exports and gambling-related tourism are mainstays of the economy. Since Macau has little arable land and few natural resources, it depends on mainland China for most of its food, fresh water, and energy imports. Japan and Hong Kong are the main suppliers of raw materials and capital goods. Although Macau was hit hard by the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis and the early 2000s recession, its economy grew approximately 13.1% annually on average between 2001 and 2006. Macau is a full Member of the World Trade Organization. Public security has greatly improved after handover to the People's Republic of China. With the tax revenue from the profitable gambling industry, the Macau government is able to introduce the social welfare program of 15 years of free education to all Macau citizens. In 2015, Macau's economy saw a sharp decrease due to the reduced spending by visitors from Mainland China since the Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping.
Baccarat or baccara is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup has three possible outcomes: "player", "banker", and "tie".
Stanley Ho Hung-sun was a Hong Kong and Macau billionaire businessman. He was the founder and chairman of SJM Holdings, which owns nineteen casinos in Macau including the Grand Lisboa.
Tourism is a major industry in Macau. It is famous for the blend of Portuguese and Chinese cultures and its gambling industry, which includes Casino Lisboa, Macau, Sands Macau, The Venetian Macao, and Wynn Macau.
Cotai is a 5.2-square-kilometer (2.0 sq mi) piece of reclaimed land on the top of the Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau that has connected two independent islands since 2005. The name, which is a portmanteau of Coloane and Taipa, can also refer to the island formed by the reclamation. In the second sense, the Special Administrative Region of Macau now consists of the Macau Peninsula, plus Cotai Island, about a mile to the south.
The Venetian Macao, is a hotel and casino resort in Macau, China owned by the American Las Vegas Sands company. The 39-story structure on Macau's Cotai Strip has 10,500,000-square-foot (980,000 m2) of floor space, and is modeled on its sister casino resort The Venetian Las Vegas. It is the largest casino in the world, the largest single structure hotel in Asia, and the tenth-largest building in the world by floor area.
The Cotai Strip is a strip, known mostly for its hotel-casinos in the central area of Cotai, Macau. The term was first coined by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation in reference to its construction of a strip.
The Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, SA is a company in Macau owned by the family of Stanley Ho. Historically, it held a monopoly to Macau's gambling industry as the only licensee for casinos. In 2002, the government of Macau began issuing more licenses and the monopoly was broken. Still, of the 41 operating casinos in Macau, 22 are owned by STDM, as of 2019.
Mobile gambling refers to playing games of chance or skill for money by using a remote device such as a tablet computer, smartphone or a mobile phone with a wireless internet connection. Over a hundred mobile casinos were operating as of December 2013, with most of the big casino operators in gambling now providing a mobile platform for their player base.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Macau:
City of Dreams is a casino resort in Cotai, Macau, SAR of People's Republic of China. Built, owned and managed by Melco Resorts & Entertainment, the resort, also known as CoD or CoD Macau, opened on 1 June 2009. Described as a "mega-casino" by The Guardian, in 2020 City of Dreams was the third-largest casino in the world. In total the property comprises three separate casinos, four hotels, five hotel towers, around 2,270 total hotel rooms, around 30 restaurants and bars, and 175,000 square feet (16,300 m2) of retail space.
Melco International Development Limited, formerly The Macao Electric Lighting Company Limited, is a multinational investment holding company based in Central, Hong Kong. Melco International invests in casino and hospitality business and other businesses in Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, and Cyprus. One of the 100 oldest companies in Hong Kong, it was founded in 1910 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1927. Originally an electricity supplier to Macau, around 2001 Melco International diversified into casino development and operations, building casino resorts such as Studio City Macau, City of Dreams Macau, City of Dreams Manila, and Altira Macau. Currently the major subsidiary that Melco International operates is Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited.
Gambling in Pennsylvania includes casino gambling, the Pennsylvania Lottery, horse racing, bingo, and small games of chance conducted by nonprofit organizations and taverns under limited circumstances. Although casino gaming has been legal for less than two decades, Pennsylvania is second only to Nevada in commercial casino revenues.
The Londoner Macao is a casino and resort on the Cotai Strip, in Macau. On August 5th, 2011, Sands China announced that the $4 billion property, long referred to as parcels five and six, would be officially named Sands Cotai Central. The first portion of the resort opened on April11th, 2012. The resort was rebranded as The Londoner Macao in 2021. The resort's redesign was completed in May 2023.
Lawrence Ho Yau-lung is a Canadian businessman. Starting his career as an investment banker at Jardine Fleming and Citibank, in 2001 he took over operations at Melco International. Later named chairman and CEO, Ho refocused the company on leisure and entertainment, building and operating casino resorts in Macau, the Philippines, and Cyprus. With an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion, he was named "Asia’s Best CEO" at the Asian Excellence Awards for the seventh time in 2018.
Gambling in China is illegal under Chinese law and has been officially outlawed since the Communist Party took power in 1949. Any form of gambling by Chinese citizens, including online-gambling, gambling overseas, opening casinos overseas to attract citizens of China as primary customers, is considered illegal. In practice however, Chinese citizens participate in state-run lotteries, regularly travel to legal gambling centers overseas or in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau and access gaming through offshore based proxy betting and online gambling companies.
The Parisian Macao is a casino resort on the Cotai Strip in Cotai, Macau, China owned by Las Vegas Sands, which features a half-scale Eiffel Tower as one of its landmarks. It was originally expected to be operational in late 2015, with that later changed to August 2016. The hotel officially opened on 13 September 2016.
