Macau, China’s sin city, wants to be more like Las Vegas

ON A BALMY morning in southern China tourists are back walking the canals of Venice and admiring the architecture of St Mark’s Square. The crowds have returned to the Venetian Macao, a resort with gondoliers and gaming tables. It and other casinos in Macau, the world’s largest gambling centre by revenue, were hit hard by the pandemic as China closed its borders. Tax receipts from the city’s gaming sector fell by 85% from 2019 to 2022. But now they are surging again. More people visited Macau in the first nine months of 2023 than in the preceding three years combined (see chart).