Las Vegas has been dethroned as the world's biggest casino centre
拉斯维加斯已不再是世界最大的博彩中心

IT IS a typical Friday evening in Macau and three women are singing on stage at the Las Vegas Sands Casino in front of an audience of thousands. But no one is listening. Everyone is jammed around the 800 tables, focused on the flip of cards, the spin of the roulette[1] wheel or the roll of dice. Opened in May 2004 with 360 tables, the casino has been expanding ever since and is now the largest under one roof in the world. It is just one of many new casinos in Macau. In September another Las Vegas operator, Steve Wynn, opened a casino aimed at a slightly wealthier clientele[2]; it was followed in October by the Galaxy, intended for a less affluent crowd. According to figures released this week, Macau's gambling receipts increased by 22% in 2006 to reach 55.9 billion patacas ($6.95 billion), placing Macau just ahead of the Las Vegas strip, previously the global leader.

这是澳门一个普通的星期五夜晚，三个女人在拉斯维加斯金沙娱乐城（Las Vegas Sands Casino）的舞台上唱着歌。台下的观众成千上万，但没人在听，所有人都挤在800张赌台的周围，目不转睛地盯着翻开的纸牌、旋转的轮盘或者滚动的骰子。这家娱乐城在2004年5月开业伊始仅有360张赌台，后来不断扩增，现已成为全球最大的一间赌场。这只是澳门众多新开的赌场之一。9月，拉斯维加斯运营商斯蒂夫•永利（Steve Wynn）在澳门开办了一家赌场，主要面向中端赌客。随后在10月，银河娱乐公司（Galaxy）也开办了一间，目标锁定为那些低端赌客。根据本周公布的数字，2006年澳门博彩业收入增长22%，达到559亿澳门元（69.5亿美元），澳门也因此超越拉斯维加斯大道（Las Vegas strip）成为全球博彩业先锋。

The customers, primarily from mainland China but also from Hong Kong and South-East Asia, show some clear preferences. They like clean, new facilities: the no-smoking room at the Sands is overflowing. They like to take part, not just watch: Macau has only half as many visitors as Las Vegas. They also like to shop and eat well. In the lobby of the Wynn Casino there is a long queue at the Louis Vuitton store (its bags are said to bring luck) and the elegant Chinese restaurant is full.

赌客主要来自中国内地，也有香港人和东南亚人。他们都有某些明显的偏爱，比如喜欢干净的新赌博场地（金沙娱乐城的禁烟区就人满为患），喜欢参赌而不是光看（在澳门，光看不赌的人要比拉斯维加斯少一半），还喜欢购物和大吃大喝。在永利娱乐城（Wynn Casino）大厅，LV专卖店（据说它的包能带来好运）里买东西的人排成了长龙，优雅的中国餐馆也是顾客盈门。

All of this is bad news for Macau's old casinos. Until 2002, gambling was the monopoly of Stanley Ho, a politically connected Hong Kong tycoon who continues to dominate the market with 17 casinos. But at the Palace, a floating casino in an ideal spot near the ferry from Hong Kong, the carpet is worn, the grimy dining room is empty and on the gambling floors upstairs there is not a single punter[3]. Not far away at the Lucky Dragon, a casino Mr Ho carved out of an office building in 2005 to compete with the new arrivals from Las Vegas, a few people sit listlessly on stools around an electronic roulette wheel.

对于澳门老的赌场来说，这一切都是坏消息。2002年以前，博彩业一直都处于赌业大亨何鸿燊（Stanley Ho）的垄断之下。此人生于香港，与政界关系密切，如今仍携17家赌场独霸澳门博彩市场。皇宫娱乐城（Palace）坐落在一个渡轮码头附近（从香港来的赌客就从这里进入澳门），是一家流动娱乐城，地理位置十分理想。眼下那里地毯已经破旧不堪，空荡荡的餐厅脏兮兮的，赌场上连个人影儿都见不着。离皇宫娱乐城不远处是幸运一条龙娱乐城（Lucky Dragon Casino），是何鸿燊在2005年将一座写字楼改造而成的，以对抗拉斯维加斯来的新对手。这里如今只有寥寥几人无精打采地围坐在一张电子轮盘赌台旁。

Mr Ho is no fool. His business model is already changing. A vast casino, the Grand Lisboa, is taking shape behind his current Lisboa flagship. Star Cruises, the world's third-largest cruise line, said on January 22nd that Mr Ho had purchased a large stake and that it would build a big new casino in Macau. And MGM, another big Las Vegas operator, has almost completed its own vast new casino with its local partner, Mr Ho's daughter Pansy.

何鸿燊并不笨，已经着手改变经营模式。在他现下的葡京旗舰店（Lisboa flagship）后一座名为豪华葡京（Grand Lisboa）的超大型赌场即将竣工。1月22日，全球第三大游艇公司“丽星邮轮”（Star Cruises）称，何鸿燊已经买下一大块地皮，打算在澳门兴建一个大型的新赌场。拉斯维加斯另一家大型运营商美高梅（MGM）也在当地人、何鸿燊之女何超琼（Pansy）的合作下，即将建成自己旗下的一个超大型赌场。

Meanwhile, Mr Wynn will double the size of his casino in July. A bigger Galaxy has already begun to take shape on Macau's shoreline. Then there is the Venetian, a $2 billion Las Vegas Sands project. As well as a vast casino, it will include a 15,000-seat arena, a convention centre, a shopping mall with 190 stores (and 160 more on the way), and 12 hotels arranged along a Venice-style canal. Other new casinos are on the drawing board, too.
与此同时，永利将于7月份把他的娱乐城规模加大一倍。在澳门滨海地区，一座更大的银河娱乐城也已渐趋完工。此外还有拉斯维加斯金沙公司投资20亿美元的威尼斯人（Venetian）建设项目。“威尼斯人”也是一座超大型娱乐城，建成之后，1.5万张座位的表演场地、会议中心、190家门店（还有160家尚在洽谈中）的大型购物中心以及沿一条威尼斯式运河建造的12间旅馆等等将一应俱全。其他的新娱乐城也正在酝酿筹划之中。

The number of visitors to Macau has grown from 10m in 2003 to 22m in 2006 and Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, estimates the number will reach 45m by 2009. Yet the boom has put pressure on wages and new competition is coming from Singapore and perhaps from Hong Kong. Fragile balance sheets and heavy investment demands prompted Standard & Poor's, a rating agency, to place negative credit outlooks on Sands in May and Galaxy in December. Any other industry would worry, but casinos are not for the nervous. “We describe this as spitting on the floor,” says William Weidner, Sands's president. “You can't miss.”

从2003年到2006年，访澳游客数量已经从1000万人次增至2200万人次。据高盛投资银行（Goldman Sachs）估计，到2009年这一数字将达到4500万。然而，发展迅猛也引发了薪酬问题（何鸿燊曾指责金沙赌场采用高薪挖走了他许多技术熟练的赌场员工。——译者按），而且澳门还正面临新加坡（也许还有香港）的竞争。考虑到不堪一击的资产负债情况和巨大的投资需求，客户信贷评估公司标准普日（Standard&Poor’s）先后于去年5月和12月将金沙和银河两家娱乐城的信用级别评为“不良”（negative）。其它任何一个行业都会为此感到紧张不安，但博彩业不会。金沙集团总裁威廉•怀德说：“我们觉得这就像往地上吐唾沫一样，（地面总会沾上唾沫的），谁也躲不了。”

[NOTES]
1. roulette n. [U] gambling game in which a small ball falls at random into one of the numbered compartments on a revolving wheel 轮盘赌: play roulette 玩轮盘赌 * [attrib 作定语] a roulette wheel 轮盘赌具上的轮盘.
2. clientele n. 1 customers or clients as a group 顾客, 委托人（总称）: an international clientele 国际顾客. 2 patrons of a theatre, restaurant, etc （剧院、 饭馆等的）顾客.
3. punter n. (Brit) (a) person who punts (punt 3 1, 2) 对庄家或赛马下赌注的人; 搞股票投机的人. (b) (infml derog 口, 贬) foolish or unthinking person who can be persuaded to buy goods or services of poor quality 冤大头: You can write what you like, as long as it keeps the punters happy. 你可以想怎麽写就怎麽写, 只要能让那些花冤枉钱的人高兴就行. * Your average punter (ie The ordinary uncultured person) does not go to the opera. 一般没什麽文化的人是不会去看歌剧的.

（责任编辑：）

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