{"id":2614,"date":"2012-04-06T01:33:49","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T17:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mdnphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2614"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:29:10","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T15:29:10","slug":"the-god-of-gamblers-macau-profile-for-the-new-yorker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/2012\/04\/06\/the-god-of-gamblers-macau-profile-for-the-new-yorker\/","title":{"rendered":"“The God of Gamblers” – Macau Profile for The New Yorker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matthew<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Macau looms large on the\u00a0iniquitous edges of Asia. It is a city of sin: filled with casinos, prostitutes and any other vice or luxury one could imagine. In many ways this is business as usual. Trafficking of women and general\u00a0skullduggery\u00a0date back to the earliest days of the Portuguese colony at the turn of the 16th century. Now the stakes are much higher though, and\u00a0for many visitors, money is not an object. Macau currently draws the biggest “whales<\/a>” in the world and most of these high rollers come straight out of mainland China. The increase in gambling revenues in Macau is unprecedented. Galaxy Entertainment\u00a0tripled\u00a0its profits during 2011, and the entire casino industry is already up\u00a020%<\/a>\u00a0in the first quarter of this year compared to last. Macau outperforms the Las Vegas Strip nearly six times over and there is\u00a0no end in sight.<\/p>\n

The already outrageous revenues posted by Macau casinos also appear to be the tip of the iceberg. It is largely acknowledged\u00a0that\u00a0a massive amount of cash moves through V.I.P. gambling rooms where high-stake bets are off the books. No one knows how\u00a0deep<\/a>\u00a0that well goes. Money laundering and connections to triads run rampant through the “junkets” who shuttle wealthy mainland Chinese gamblers into Macau and collect their debts elsewhere in order to bypass currency limitations at the border. Macau is riding the tails of China’s economic boom and catering to the extravagant tastes of the Chinese nouveau riche looking to flex their often\u00a0illicit<\/a>\u00a0financial muscles.<\/p>\n

At the top of the pyramid are two of the world’s richest men: Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson (also the largest\u00a0contributor<\/a>\u00a0to Newt Gingrich’s campaign efforts). Both are in heated\u00a0competition<\/a>\u00a0to rule Macau as their fortunes continue to\u00a0skyrocket despite serious allegations of corruption and a\u00a0spotty<\/a>\u00a0track record. A WikiLeaks spinoff called\u00a0CasinoLeaks – Macau<\/a>\u00a0offers up condemning fare based on collected public records. Be sure to read Evan Osnos’\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0in The New Yorker that features my photography. He does an amazing job navigating this intricate web of sordidness. More photographs that didn’t make the cut can be seen below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Patrons<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a>\"Patrons<\/a>\"Children<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Patrons<\/a>\"Patrons<\/a>\"Patrons<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Patrons<\/a>\"The<\/a>\"Patrons<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>\"A<\/a>\"The<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macau looms large on the\u00a0iniquitous edges of Asia. It is a city of sin: filled with casinos, prostitutes and any other vice or luxury one could imagine. In many ways this is business as usual. Trafficking of women and general\u00a0skullduggery\u00a0date back to the earliest days of the Portuguese colony at the turn of the 16th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,6,7,12],"tags":[79,88,105,176,245,248,358,393,430],"class_list":["post-2614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clippings_category","category-consumerism_category","category-counterfeit_paradises_category","category-development_category","category-society_category","tag-china","tag-clipping","tag-corruption","tag-gambling","tag-luxury","tag-macau","tag-society","tag-the-new-yorker","tag-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3151,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions\/3151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}