On this day | When Sands Macau first opened its doors 20 years ago, chaos and scuffles ensued – from the SCMP archive
- On May 18, 2004, scuffles broke out and elderly people fainted after false reports of free gaming chips lured 15,000 to the opening day of Sands Macau
- Casino’s opening marked the end of Stanley Ho’s monopoly on Macau’s gaming industry
This article was first published on May 19, 2004
By Freda Wan and Harald Bruning in Macau
Macau’s gaming industry entered a new era yesterday amid chaotic scenes. Scuffles broke out as more than 15,000 people jammed into the Sands casino, the first challenger to Stanley Ho Hung-sun’s gambling empire.
Hundreds of security officers had trouble controlling the crowds that gathered outside, many of them lured by false newspaper reports that free gambling chips would be handed to first-day guests.
Scuffles broke out when the casino opened at 3pm, half an hour later than scheduled, with some elderly people fainting.
The opening ended the Macau casino monopoly system that had been in place since 1937. The Sands is the brainchild of American tycoon Sheldon Adelson, whose company owns the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. It is the first in a wave of new casinos due to open in Macau in the next year.
“This is the start of a new era in Macau,” said Mr Adelson, who promised to improve the quality of the city’s gaming industry. “The vision starts today,” he said.
Mr Ho, whose casinos had monopolised Macau’s gaming industry for the past four decades, said of the newcomer: “We will learn what they have done better than we do. I have lots of confidence in Macau’s future. The cake is going to be bigger and bigger and we could all have a share. It is not a problem at all.”
After hearing reports that 200-pataca chips would be given away on opening day, crowds began forming at 6am. When the first punters were allowed to enter, thousands behind them began pushing, snapping three doors from their hinges and damaging metal fences.
Police sent 250 officers to control the crowd but even after police announced that the reports of free chips were false, people refused to disperse and grew increasingly impatient.
Waitress and Macau resident Bonnie Vong, who took a day off work, said: “This is unfair. How come some newspapers reported about the free chips and it was not true?”
To control the crowds, casino security staff stopped the escalators soon after the opening.
Police sealed off a section of the road outside to control the crowds. By 8pm about 500 gamblers were still queueing outside the casino. Gong Xiuyu, an elderly woman from Zhuhai, said: “I’m so tired. I don’t feel like going upstairs now. Seeing so many people you’d think we were in line for rice and there’s a famine.”
The Macau gaming industry employs about 16,000 people and generates about three-quarters of government income.
Twenty new casinos, hotels and resorts are to be built in the city. The Galaxy Casino Company will open its first casino next month, followed by Wynn Resorts.
There are plans to build a casino-hotel tower later this year and Mr Adelson’s company plans to build the Macau Venetian in the Cotai reclamation area.
