Hong Kong

People take gambling seriously in Macau. That’s no surprise now, after I found out that Macau had become the world’s largest gambling center in 2006 and that their economy relies heavily on both tourism and gambling. However, it’s not all tourists and gamblers; Macau has the fourth highest life expectancy, ranks 18th on the Human Development Index, and has the highest GDP (PPP) per capita in the world.

Personally, I don’t gamble; but we had to check out the casinos and hotels on the “strip.” The one I enjoyed the most was the Wynn Macau. The Wynn Las Vegas is actually the top casino on the stip and brings in about $0.69 billion annually. This pales in comparison to the Wynn Macau; it’s the fourth highest grossing casino in the world and brings in about $3.59 billion every year, as of 2014. Considering that 8 out of the 10 top casinos in the world are in Macau, an area of only 30.5 sq. km (11.8 sq. mi.) that’s an incredible feat. In many respects, however, the comparison is unfair because Vegas diversifies between food, beverage, and entertainment, whereas Macau is 100% gambling.

So naturally, we had to check out the other casinos that were the “best in the world” according to BusinessWire.com. Sands Cotai was number eight and we worked our way down from there. Number seven was Star World, followed by MGM Macau, Venetian Macau, Wynn Macau, City of Dreams, SJM Grand Lisboa, and finally number one, the Galaxy Macau.

We finally made our way back to the hotel and caught up on some much needed rest before getting up the next day and heading straight to the Macau Tower. Although the tower is only 338 m (1,109 ft) high, it’s perfect for the title of the world’s highest commercial skyjump. It’s a 233 meter jump, or you can choose to do the skywalk around the bungee jump platform. Being afraid of heights, I chose neither.

The weather was quite overcast and gloomy that day, so it didn’t allow for any great views from the top of the tower.

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