Macau’s chief executive, Edmund Ho, is reluctant about issuing new licenses and land allocations for the creation of new casinos. At the moment Macau has three casino licenses and three casino sub-licenses.

Macau had greater economic growth in 2007 than the rest of the world due to the expansion of the gaming and tourism sector as well as strong stability of investment and local consumption. The GDP of Macau in 2007 was at around USD 19.20 billion and the per-capita amount was USD 36,357. Both of these numbers show considerable increase from 2006.

Gaming revenues in Macau rocketed more than US$10 billion (HK$78 billion) last year, a raise of 46 percent; it continues to close in on the greater Las Vegas Region. The gaming enclave reached a record HK$81.3 billion, according to the latest figures from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Macau’s revenue was boosted by a record fourth-quarter performance, pushed up by the opening of the giant US2.4 billion Venetian, owned by the US firm Las Vegas Sands. It currently stands second largest building in the world and largest within Asia.

A site was sold at a government land auction yesterday in Macau yesterday for 555 million patacas (HK$541.45 million), 10 times higher than the reserve price. The cite had a reserve price of 55 million patacas. The two residential sites are located in the northern part of Macau, Fai Chi Kei. The other site, with the area of 32,000 sq/ft had a reserve price of 95 million and was sold for 867 million patacas It is predicted that the retail price wills reach up to 5,500 patacas per sq/ft when developed, which will push housing prices up 25 percent this year.

The Speymill Group, a real estate investment manager, claimed that profits are likely to fall short of expectations this year. The company has experienced planning delays in its construction projects. Recent projections include that Speymill will take a GBP 400, 000 hit against profits this year and the board considers it unlikely that it will meet the forecast pre-tax profit of GBP 3.651 million.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. intends to use its Venetia Macao-Resort-Hotel as a trade exhibition center that serves various types of venue. The company is planning to change Asia’s exhibition industry by designing the best trade exhibition center in Macao. According to one of the Resort official, the advantage of establishing this trade show is to offer competitive rates for the entertainment facilities, shopping mall as well as the hotel rooms.

Macao and Mainland China had signed an arbitration agreement for the purpose of maintaining both countries long term harmony and legal interests and rights. According to the vice President’s of Supreme People’s Court, Huang Songyou, this agreement is extremely needed to prevent business conflicts between both countries. Under the agreement, Macao will be allowed to make arbitration judgments on any judgmental issues that have been created since 20th December 1999.

Banco Delta Asia, a small privately owned bank from Macau, will be returned to its former owner, Stanley Au. The bank had been barred from interactions with any financial institution in the United States by the US Department of Treasury after it had been alleged to launder money for the North Korean Government. So far, the bank had been controlled by a state-appointed administrative committee.

In a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Tuesday, Dore Holdings Ltd., the Hong Kong-based interior decorator and heavy investor in Macau casinos, has bought the rights to earnings from high-roller gambling junkets for HKD 993.6 million (USD 128 million). Dore Holdings will pay cash, new shares and convertible bonds for 60 percent of Triple Gain Group Ltd., which is entitled to the profit of junket operator Nove Sociedade Unipessoal Ltd. Junket operators are promoters who entice high rollers to casinos, occasionally lending funds to their clients. Considering the recent unveiling of Las Vegas Sands Inc.’s new Venetian, the competition between Macau’s casinos is rapidly increasing and causing junket commissions to rise in China’s only region that permits casinos.

After lifting a forty year ban on the gaming industry two years ago, Singapore is making strides to increase its share of Asia Pacific’s tourism market by erecting two large casinos by 2010. According to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the casinos will not dominate the city-state’s diversified economy�"an allusion to Macau, which recently overtook Las Vegas with the world’s largest gaming revenues�"but will contribute to the metropolitan island and help shed it’s “museum” image. Although imposing a SGD 100 daily levy on citizens and permanent residents of the city-state, the government expects to double the number of overseas visitors to 17 million annually and triple tourism receipts to SGD 30 billion (USD 20 billion) by 2015.