How China Built its Own Las Vegas

Video narrated and hosted by Fred Mills. This video contains paid promotion for Masterworks.

IN 1941, a 19-year-old man fleeing the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong arrived on the islands of Macau with nothing but the clothes on his back and $2 in his pocket. What he would do next would change the city forever.

Meet Stanley Ho, the Gambling King of Macau.

We can trace the rise of one of China’s strangest cities through his story, and through the buildings he built here.

From the retro-futuristic to the bombastic, to the sleek and modern that took inspiration from him.

When Stanley Ho arrived in Macau it was a sleepy backwater, but when he left he had grown it into a heaving metropolis and the gambling capital of the world, surpassing even Vegas.

This is the man who built Macau. China’s Sin City.

A city of contradictions

Let’s get one thing straight. Macau is a city of contradictions.

It’s in a country where gambling is strictly illegal, yet its gaming industry is seven times larger than that of Las Vegas.

It has so many people that it’s the most densely populated place in the world, yet more than two-thirds of it is built on water… or rather, reclaimed land from the sea.

It’s Portuguese and it’s Chinese. It’s East and it’s West. And you can see this reflected in its architecture.

You see, Macau sprung from a similar “one country, two systems” policy that Hong Kong did, yet took a completely different path.

In many ways this is the anti-Hong Kong.

Above: More than 50 percent of Macao's territory is now reclaimed land.

It was once a Portuguese colony in direct competition with Hong Kong for trade… but it was losing out. So, naturally Macau turned to gambling… and ladies of the night.

This gave the city an edge. Legalising the gaming industry in the 1850s and turning a blind eye to other nefarious activities boosted the economy.

And Macau took to gambling like a bird to water. Only water was exactly Macau’s problem.

Ever since the 17th century Macau had used some form of land reclamation to expand the city. The first instance of which was a land bridge built to connect the biggest island of Macau to mainland China.

By 1912 Macau consisted of just two islands measuring a total area of 11.6 square kilometres.

Back then, the city didn’t look like it does now. This section was actually two separate islands called Taipa and Coloane.

The space in between was reclaimed through a process called infilling where large rocks are piled into the area then filled with clay until the new land rises above the sea level.

It’s a process Macau would come to perfect over the coming century.

Then, in 1941, the Gambling King came to take his crown.

Enter Stanley Ho

Stanley Ho came from a once wealthy family that went bankrupt in the Great Depression. His father lost their fortune on the stock market, then fled to Vietnam, leaving behind his wife and children. Ho was only 13.

Ho was hungry to live the high life once again. Escaping the Japanese occupation and landing on the shores of Macau he rebuilt his life.

He traded kerosene and military supplies slowly building up capital and establishing himself as an entrepreneur. But he always kept one eye on the potential of Macau’s gaming industry.

By the 1960s he was a formidable figure in the city, he had wealth and influence

In 1962 he gained an exclusive gambling licence over Macau, effectively creating a monopoly on the gaming industry of the city, one that would last for the next four decades.

He built several casinos, including his crown jewel, the Casino Lisboa.

Above: Macau had never seen anything like the Grand Lisboa before.

Opening in 1970, it was something Macau had never seen before, a large-scale, fully equipped, glittering casino. Its bold neon lights and golden facade, both somehow retro and futuristic at the same time. It set the tone for the rest of the city. This was Vegas, Macau style.

During its peak in the late 20th century, the Casino Lisboa was one of the largest and most profitable casinos in the world. And it looked it.

There was just one problem: the city of Macau could not keep up with its sudden popularity. This sparked a construction boom.

Macau’s road networks, public transportation systems and airport all need to be upgraded. And with the tax revenue the gambling industry bought in, Macau could suddenly afford it.

Famously, Ho also pioneered a ferry system that would directly bring in wealthy businessmen from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

The city didn’t just grow its economy, but it grew quite literally in size. More land was reclaimed to build more casinos and hotels. The island swelled.

The Gambling King understood that money talks, and money builds.

Of course, none of this was without controversy. Ho was accused of associating with organised crime to help build his empire. Claims he has always denied.

At midnight on December 20 1999 Macau was handed over to the People’s Republic of China, ending 442 years of Portuguese rule. Change was in the air.

Just a few years later, in 2002, the Gambling King would face invaders. Ho’s monopoly over the city was lifted and other companies were suddenly allowed to compete in the market.

New operators like Wynn Resorts and MGM soon set up shop. Vegas had officially come to the East.

But the King would not go down without a fight. He turned to his beloved Casino Lisboa and set about building an absolutely enormous extension, one stepped in such luxury and opulence Asia had never seen before.

The Grand Lisboa

In 2007 he opened the Grand Lisboa.

Designed by architects Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Man, this building was anything but subtle. In fact it was meant to be exactly the opposite.

It was a loud, bombastic announcement that while the foreigners could flood Macau with their own casinos, the island still belonged to the King.

Above: The Grand Lisboa opened in the face of enormous competition.

Drawing on blooming lotus flowers as inspiration, the tower cantilevers on either side by 20 metres, springing up from a spherical base meant to resemble a golden crown. How apt.

Gold is a very lucky colour in Chinese culture. It represents wealth, fortune, and abundance. It’s no surprise then that you see a lot of it here… and well, everywhere. All over the building.

Inside are 430 luxury rooms, several Michelin-star restaurants, and so, so many slot machines, more than 1,000 in total.

The skyscraper’s bold design and massive scale were meant to reinforce Macau’s status as one of the world's premier gambling destinations and its opening coincided with the city’s gaming revenue overtaking Vegas.

By 2013 this revenue reached $45BN. Macau was now the largest gambling market in the entire world.

But the King could not hold onto the throne for much longer. Young pretenders were after the crown.

The Morpheus Hotel

This was when construction began on the Morpheus Hotel, built by Ho’s rivals. While the Grand Lisboa cost $385M, the Morpheus building cost eye watering $1.1BN. This would be another step up in luxury.

Both buildings are staggeringly bold in their form, but you can see how the Morpheus Hotel evolves and expands on the decadence - and flamboyance - of the Grand Lisboa.

Zaha Hadid was commissioned to design the hotel in 2012. Fate would make this one of her last projects before her death just a few years later.

While inspired by the fluid forms found in nature, the building was also incredibly unique in that it doesn’t reference traditional architectural styles, like many of Macau’s other buildings.

Above: The Morpheus Hotel. Image courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects.

The building was the result of the restraints of its site, using the foundations of an abandoned condominium building.

It's supported by a criss-crossing exoskeleton, that while beautiful to look at, was one of the most challenging large-scale steelwork structures of its kind to ever be built.

This was not just because of its weight, but because this exoskeleton would be the main support for the building instead of the interior columns you would typically find in a skyscraper of this size.

To accomplish this the structure was made of over 25,000 tonnes of steel requiring incredibly precise engineering to be connected and assembled.

It had to be made super strong in order to withstand the typhoon winds common in the region.

All this was worth it though. Because the building’s main supports are on the outside this liberates the interior, allowing for truly expansive spaces. This is on display in the spectacular 40 metre high lobby.

3D printing was used to make the lobby possible as well. Zaha Hadid Architects used the technology to print complex geometries in both the facade and interior spaces. Making this one of the first uses of 3D printing in large-scale construction.

Much of the hotel had to be prefabricated out of necessity.

The end of the King's reign

Four wives and 17 children later, Stanley Ho the Gambling King of Macau was tired. He had transformed the city that had given him refuge nearly eight decades ago. He retired in 2018 and died shortly after in 2020.

Macau is now on a different path. While still catering to tourists, the Morpheus Hotel represents a shift in the kind of tourist the city is wanting to attract. Not just gamblers, but luxury seekers.

The city also desperately needs to take care of its own.

In 1912 Macau consisted of just two islands with a total land mass of 11.6 square kilometres. Thanks to rampant land reclamation efforts, that has now tripled with Macau occupying an area of 33 square kilometres.

Above: Macau is now a vastly different city to one Ho arrived in.

Some 700,000 people live here and some 32M people visit every year. This makes Macau the most densely populated place in the world.

More people live here per square kilometre than anywhere else.

The New Macau Urban Zone is a project that will add a further 7.3 square kilometres to Macau.

While some of this new land will be used for hotels and other amenities for tourists, most of it will be used for housing developments, both private and public, with a substantial amount being put aside as affordable housing. This new land is for Macau, not for its visitors. This has been a long time coming and is a problem the city needs to face.

The Gambling King may have passed, but his legacy lives on. Macau today is a vibrant, contradictory place full of drama - and that’s just the architecture.

If the new Macau should be for the people, maybe the people of Macau can be its next king. Maybe they can shape the city for their needs, not just for the attention of tourists.

In that case, long live the next king.

This video and article contain paid promotion for Masterworks, you can skip their waitlist here.

Video narrated and hosted by Fred Mills. Additional footage and images courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects and Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects.

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