Macau alone is projected to generate about $30 billion in revenue this year, five times the $6 billion expected from casinos on the Las Vegas strip. Massachusetts has attracted proposals from a wide array of casino operators, but success here depends on the state’s ability to translate that initial interest into the kind of large-scale resorts that will generate the most jobs and tax revenue.
“There is a market in Massachusetts, but you’re not going to see the kind of investments happening in Asia,’’ said Mark Nichols, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He added that the rise of Asia has even dented growth prospects in large US markets like Las Vegas.
“A lot of the high-rollers that used to come to Vegas are now going to Macau or Singapore,’’ Nichols said.
Still, many industry specialists said that Massachusetts remains a top US market and will probably get significant investments. The question is whether the state will ultimately benefit from a competition between Adelson and Steve Wynn, the industry’s two biggest operators, and generate enough additional interest to ensure that, if one or both drops out, the state will still get proposals in excess of the $500 million minimum set by state lawmakers.
“Competition is key to the success of casino gaming,’’ said Denise von Herrmann, a provost at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta who has tracked the gambling industry for two decades.
She said Massachusetts offers large casino companies a chance to diversify operations so they are not invested too heavily in a single market. On the other hand, she noted, it is a smaller market where state officials have pledged to keep a tight lid on the number of facilities and how much they are allowed to grow, which could discourage bold, expensive proposals.
