A Booming Casino Town Has Secrets
5th November, 2007
Macau has been recently growing, expanding and becoming more economically successful that it has ever been before. Some instances are convinced that some dodgy business has been going on in the gambling hotspot.
Macau’s previous secretary for transport and public works, Ao Man-long, who was arrested in December last year by the Macau Commission Against Corruption, will now face charges such as bribes, money laundering and abuse of power. He has managed to get filthily rich over the last 6 years “earning” himself 100 million dollars, which on its own is already 57 times more than his family income was at that point in time.
The graftbusters are positive that the man was selling construction contracts for bribes. Aside from cash Ao also managed to get himself bank deposits, watches, jewellery and even a 300 bottle wine cellar and luxury delicacies, such as shark’s fin or abalone.
Due to the size and importance of the case, a lot of speculations have been created and a lot of publicity in the newspapers and other media. Macau, the casino boomtown, has taken over Las Vegas Strip last year and could now be considered the gambling centre of the world with yearly revenues coming up to 7.2 billion dollars.
Legislator Jose Countinho expressed his thoughts on the situation: "This is the biggest corruption case in Macau's history. The residents here have high expectations for this."
When Macau liberalized its gaming market, in 2001, it became a magnet for foreign investment, which also put an end to the amazing monopoly that tycoon Stanley Ho had for a while now.
Venetian casino resort was opened in August and turned out to be significantly bigger (about twice the size) than the original resort in the Vegas, where the chain started. It has 880 casino tables and 3,500 slot machines, 20 casino restaurants, 350 casino shops, and a casino hotel with 3,000 rooms.
There are other chain owners that decided to open casino resorts in Macau, such as Steve Wynn and Australia’s Crown. The city itself is fairly small, around 500,000 people, who have all tried to do anything to reposition their hometown to get rid of the gambling-focus image.
