If Macau’s casino and resort industry is to survive the crackdown, it has to change: the ultra-rich gamblers may not be there in such numbers as before, but the culture of luxury gambling trips, known as junkets, and fears of the ever-present triads in the background – remain. Such was Macau’s reliance on high-rolling, rather than retail – casual – gamblers that even at Chinese new year, a key date in the gambling calendar, Macau’s overall gaming revenues were down almost 50% on the year before. The Macau casino scene has been repeatedly described by US authorities and independent experts as a nexus of money-laundering, triad operations, and an outlet for corrupt Chinese officials to spend the proceeds of their crimes.īut now the Chinese government is cracking down on the corrupt officials and money-laundering through Macau, and the stream of income from high rollers is rapidly drying up. Macau is serious business – but it’s not all show business. Macau is built on a gambling industry so huge it has made Las Vegas look like a smalltown carnival, with its casinos turning over in excess of $44bn in the past year alone. With this advertising centrepiece, Beckham has become the public face of The Venetian, the flagship Macau resort of US billionaire – and US Republican party backer – Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corporation.
