Macao beats Las Vegas as new gambling capital

Macao, a tiny special administrative region of China, is now the world's gambling capital, overtaking the swanky Las Vegas in revenues last year.

Macao's 22 casinos generated a record $7.2 billion in 2006, the local government announced. By comparison, the 40-odd casinos on Las Vegas' famous main strip generated $6.6 billion.

Gambling earnings have boomed in Macao since 2001 when the government ended tycoon Stanley Ho's 40-year-long monopoly on casinos in the city and allowed foreign operators, including many American giants to set up operations, ChinaDaily reported.

Macao, a former Portuguese colony, embraced Chinese sovereignty in 2000 to become a special administrative region of China.

Interestingly, gambling is prohibited within the Chinese mainland after the Communist Party led by 'chairman' Mao Zedong captured power in Beijing in 1949.