Macau is a gambling mecca.
Although it might not be quite as well known as Las Vegas, Macau, the autonomous region on the south coast of China, has been the world's gambling capital since 2006, and at its peak it was doing seven times the revenue of Las Vegas.
The house (almost) always wins
This week Macau found itself the latest target in the sights of the Chinese Communist Party — not for the first time — which announced a new round of regulatory oversight for the industry, which could see officials monitoring the Macau scene much more closely. Investors deemed that a particularly bad card to be dealt, wiping more than one-third of the value from Macau gambling companies like Wynn Macau in just one day.
The corruption crackdown
This isn't the first time Macau has found itself in the crosshairs. Revenues tumbled in 2014 as China's anti-corruption crackdown scared off high-rollers, with the goal of taking the "perks" out of public office. Macau eventually recovered from that scrutiny before being annihilated by the pandemic, with revenues almost slipping to zero. Now it's the latest sector, alongside big tech and video games, to be targeted by the CCP. The house (almost) always wins.
