Macau is definitely an interesting place. First of all, entering from the China side is a hassle. You require a special (and expensive) license to drive in Macau, for whatever reason they drive on the left side of the road in Macau (like the British although Macau was a Portuguese colony and to the best of my knowledge they drive on the right side in Portugal). My cousin drove us to the border, parked the car at a garage at the border gate and we proceeded to enter Macau on foot.
Though Macau is technically a part of China again since the 1999 re-unification it is a "Special Administrative Region" like Hong Kong and the border is very tightly controlled, free access is not allowed. You must first exit China at the customs and immigration gate, then you have to clear customs and immigration on the Macau side . . . welcome to the new China of "one country, two systems". I found it really ironic that the border is so restricted even though Macau is part of the same freakin' country! It's much more of a hassle than going between Canada and the US or between European Union countries.
Macau is incredibly hot and humid this time of year. I've been to Vegas in August and it gets damn hot there too but it's so incredibly muggy in Macau, if it were any more humid I swear I'd need scuba gear! With the humidity the temperature felt like 120 degrees Fahrenheit! It's like a sauna, you break a sweat just standing outside!
Compounding the heat is the fact that I had to wear long pants, a shirt with sleeves and proper shoes (i.e. no athletic shoes or sandals). The casinos in Macau follow the European customs where dress code is strictly enforced. I saw security turn away a guy in a sleeveless shirt and shorts at the Wynn Macau.
Luckily, as soon as you cross the border all of the major resorts have free air-conditioned shuttle busses that will take you directly from the border gate to their properties. We hopped the "Cotai" shuttle headed for the Venetian Resort.
Throughout the day I had a chance to visit the Venetian, the MGM Grand, the Wynn, the Lisboa/Grand Lisboa (original home-grown Macau casinos) and the new City of Dreams project.
On the surface, the properties look like exact replicas of their Vegas counterparts, the interior designs of the Venetian and Wynn match their Vegas versions exactly. It was actually really trippy walking through, I kept getting Vegas flashbacks.
It's only after the initial amusement wears off that you start to notice the subtle differences. The layouts of the casinos are different. In Vegas you must cross through the gaming area to get anywhere in the property. In Macau the gaming area is very tightly controlled and you must pass through security, more often than not a metal detector and a bag inspection (or in the case of the Wynn a bag check as backpacks weren't allowed). Absolutely no children are allowed in the gaming area and there is an amusing pictogram of a family with a big red slash over it on the signs. Also, absolutely no outside food or drink is permitted, my brother had to throw out the rest of his Boost Juice when he entered the MGM Grand.
They militantly enforce the no pictures inside the gaming area rule. At one point at MGM Grand I saw a diorama of the City Center Project in Las Vegas and snapped a couple pictures of it when a security guard ran over and not only told me to stop taking pictures but forced me to delete the pictures I had already taken! Geez, talk about enforcing the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of it, I was taking a picture of an ad!
One immediately noticeable difference in the gaming area is that the ratio of slot machines to tables in Macau is much lower than in Vegas. In general, Chinese don't play slots and prefer the table games (which puts the house at slightly less of an advantage because the slots are big revenue generators since they have the worst odds and least labour requirements). This also meant that the Macau gaming floors were a lot quieter than the Vegas ones and I didn't miss the constant cacophonous electronic din from the one-armed bandits.
My brother and I did a good once-through of all the properties we visited and at the end of each we left with the same general impression . . . "That's it?" Though they superficially resemble their Vegas counterparts the Macau resorts are severely limited in the variety of dining, shopping and nightlife/entertainment options. They're beginning to realize that the Chinese market they cater to don't really care about these things. If you live in Hong Kong why would you go to Macau for dining, shopping or nightlife/entertainment? I would venture to guess that hotel rooms at the resorts are rarely sold out too since Macau is an easy day-trip for most of its visitors. The resorts are obviously focusing their efforts on maximizing gaming revenue which is the opposite of the Vegas model where the emphasis has shifted to the "entertainment" aspect of the resorts.
In the end the Macau resorts felt like hollow imitations of the Vegas originals. They may look superficially alike but there definitely isn't as much variety on offer in Macau and it's a long shot from being "Vegas of the East".
I did, however, also get a chance to visit the Old Town Macau, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walking around the streets of the former Portuguese colony you'd swear you were in Europe not China! I was also fortunate enough to sample some Macanese cuisine. It's an interesting fusion of the cuisines of the various Portuguese colonies with African, Asian and South American influences. It was delicious! Those experiences were more impressive than any of the resorts.
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