The Macau Special Administrative Region, commonly known as Macau or Macao is one of the two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), along with Hong Kong. Administered by Portugal until 1999, it was the oldest European colony in China, dating back to the 16th century. The administrative power over Macau was transferred to China in 1999.

Besides historical Chinese and Portuguese world-heritage relics, Macau's biggest attraction is its gambling industry and casinos. Though many forms of gambling are legal, the most popular game is baccarat, which generates over two thirds of the gaming industry's gross receipts.

Tourism
From 9.1 million visitors in 2000, arrivals to Macau has grown to 18.7 million visitors in 2005, 21.98 million visitors in 2006 and is expected to receive between 24 and 25 million visitors in 2007, with over 50% of the arrivals coming from mainland China. This recent growth has been driven by gambling and related tourism. Tourists from Hong Kong remain numerous, representing about 30% of arrivals. Since the 1999 return to Chinese rule, Triad underworld violence, a dark spot on the economy, has virtually disappeared, to the benefit of the tourism sector. Macau also received the Future Award 2007, for being regarded the most promising future tourism destination in Asia, voted by 26,000 German travel trade members of GoAsia; an association that includes tour operators, airline companies, among many others. Macau has been currently rated as one of the world's top tourism destinations by the World Tourism Organization.

Gambling
With the opening of the Sands Macau, the largest casino in the world as measured by total number of table games, in 2004 and Wynn Macau in 2006, gambling revenues from Macau's casinos were for the first time greater than those of Las Vegas Strip (each about $6 billion), making Macau the highest-volume gambling centre in the world. Other casinos and hotels slated to be opened through 2009 are: The Venetian Macao (2007), Four Seasons (2008), MGM Grand Macau (2007), Ponte 16 (2007), Far East Consortium Complex (2007), Grand Hyatt (2009), Galaxy Cotai Megaresort (2008), City of Dreams (2008), Oceanus (2008), Mandarin Oriental Lago Nam Van (2009). The first Phase of Macau's Cotai Strip is scheduled to open in 2007 and will include 19,000 guest rooms throughout seven resort hotels, with the $1.8 billion Venetian Macao serving as the anchor. The head of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson is in the latter stage of negotiation to secure land in Macau, where he is going to set up a US$3 billion casino resort complex. As a result, Macau's economy is growing rapidly due to gambling related tourism and construction from the new casino entrants.

Offshore Banking
Along with Bermuda, British Virgin Islands or Bahamas, Macau is one of the most well-known offshore financial centres and tax havens in a worldwide sense. Banco Nacional Ultramarino, Bank of China, Seng Heng Bank and Tai Fung Bank are among the most influential banks.

There are also many foreign banks registered and established in Macau as well, including Bank of America - Macau and HSBC - Macau. Macau is a free port with low-taxes and no monetary control policy imposed. Operations of offshore service businesses are feasible in Macau because of related offshore law that has been in effect since 1999. The offshore finance business is regulated and supervised by the Monetary Authority of Macao, while the regulation and supervision of the offshore non-finance business is mainly controlled by the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute.


Information courtesy of wikipedia.org