At the beginning of the 20th century, Portuguese symbolist Camilo de Almeida Pessanha, who at the time lived in Macau, described the city as a “material and moral rubbish heap“. And truly, before the Chinese took it over in 1999, Macau was the perfect place for organized crime where gangs fought each other over the control of gamblers’ VIP lounges, an industry which contributed significantly to the rise and development of Macau as we know it today. As we know from early accounts, the Chinese are obsessed with gambling.  Even the tiniest Chinese community has its small gambling house and everyone is prepared to play until they lose everything – “their houses, wives and even clothes”. The 3rd-century scholar Wei Qiao writes: “By the time they are finished, they’re half of completely naked, it’s shameless”. Although gambling is illegal in present-day China, the Chinese do not have a moral problem with it. It was Mao Zedong who first banned gambling houses, a decision upheld by the succeeding Communist structures. However, in order to retain huge amounts of revenue, the Chinese government declared Macau a special administrative region with its own laws, distinct from those in mainland China. 

Gambling is legal here, and casinos are the most favoured gambling places. Architecturally conceived as a mimetic rendering of Las Vegas, which, in turn, mimics some European cities like Venice or Paris, Macau follows an identical matrix, only on a much greater scale. The copy of copies, multiplied worlds and spaces become props for the most bizarre means of production, reproduction and money laundering. David Fong, assoc. professor of business at the University of Macau stresses that, in addition to accommodating the passion for gambling, Macanese gambling houses are really all about money laundering:

”There are many ways to launder money, more than we can think of…”, or as one resident commented: “No one can quantify how much money is laundered in Macau, but it’s such an obscene amount of money you would die.”

Over time, Macau has reached four times the size of Las Vegas, while its annual revenue is higher than that of the state of Nevada. In this project, the focus lies on the happenings in ultra-luxurious hotels and their VIP rooms and casinos, and, in contrast, on the reality of everyday life in the Portuguese part of the city, subject to complete decay, on the very edge of survival, featuring a historical centre with a handful of temples, Chinese gardens and tea rooms interesting for tourists. 

Finally, who are the people who come to gamble in Macau, what is their relationship with money and what role do I Ching, Feng Shui, numerology and superstition play in the unquenchable desire of the Chinese to get rich in the fastest possible way? What is the structure of the intricate system of accessing VIP rooms, who are the biggest rollers and high-flyers, and how does the junket system, which is unique to Macau, work? These are only some of the problems that will be tackled in this project.