the las vegas of asia

the las vegas of asia

January 6, 2025

We took the bus across the Lingding and Jiuzhou channels into nearby Macau to see what Asia’s gambling mecca was like.

impressive landmark replicas #

The displays of extravagant wealth are pretty intense here, and no matter where you look, you can see a casino looming in the distance. They have replicas of many world landmarks, including Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.

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The Londoner.
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Inside the Londoner.
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Replica Eiffel tower outside the Parisian.

the venetian #

The most egregiously (and gaudy) display of wealth would be, however, the Venetian, which is the second largest casino in the world, only behind the Winstar World Casino in the USA.

However, more money passes through the Venetian than any other casino in the world. It’s a huge looming structure, and if you go inside, you’ll quickly find yourself looking at an artifical canal system, complete with boats you can take a ride on if you so wish.

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The Venetian.
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Interior of the Venetian.
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Canals of the Venetian.
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Another view of the canals.
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Another view of the Venetian from the outside.

don’t have a macau man #

It is all a pretty stupid use of money if you ask me, but it is a marvel to look at. Keep in mind that there are strong ties to organised crime here, historically the Triads. Gambling is illegal in mainland China, so everyone comes here to siphon their money off to rich gangsters connected to the CCP.

So what did we do? Well, when in Macau, do like the Macanese do. We both gave ourselves a spending limit of $50 to spend on the floor and quickly blew most of it on blackjack, roulette and craps. We wanted to play baccarat too, which is the most popular game in Macau’s casinos, but the buy-ins were too high for us to participate.

After blowing through most of our money, we managed to get a few lucky payouts playing craps and came out to a net positive of about $8 each. We decided to go out on a high and left after that. This is my first time gambling at a casino, and likely the last.

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The Crystal Lobby at the Galaxy Macau, post winning a solid $8 each.
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The Grand Lisboa.
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The Casino Lisboa.

Sadly I didn’t take any pictures of the more interesting aspects of Macau, such as the old Portuguese architecture around the city. We only spent a few days here as there isn’t a lot to do. After getting our fix, we’ve decided to set off for one of our big destinations - China.