The Vegas of the East (12/29/07)

Casinos in Macau are different from Vegas or Reno. First of all they don’t seem as big, maybe 75% in size, and not as packed with people as Vegas. Some are copies of casinos in Vegas: the Venetian, Wynn, Sands (re-incarnated) and the 2 week old MGM. Others have local flavor, such as the Grand Emperor and the Lisbona. We went into a few of the local casinos to check them out, but we felt more comfortable in the ones from home. The table games are also not the same. Most of the table games are Bacarrat, there are no Craps tables (too bad for Rex!) and the Blackjack tables follow different rules than in the states. But the biggest difference is the staff. The Casinos have hired as many English speaking staff as they could, mainly recruiting from the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The staff are very warm, friendly and open. They will talk with the patrons as they serve them. While we were playing slots at MGM, one of the servers would seek us out to bring us drinks and talk, I think. She recognized that Rex didn’t drink so she would find us to deliver juice to him. Besides seeming very eager to please, several also expressed a desire to get to America and were almost starry-eyed about it. It was a bit heart-wrenching to see how desperate they were.