Macau casinos hold little appeal for Hong Kong residents these days, at least, according to recent visitation stats. The number of overall visitors to Macau may have risen 7.5% in 2014 but those coming from Hong Kong fell 5%. Hong Kong visitor numbers peaked in 2011 at over 7m, falling to just 6.43m last year.
Macao Government Tourist Office Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes believes the thrill of the new is wearing off for Hong Kong’s gamblers. “They might have fresh interests in coming to Macau a few years ago when many big projects were opened” but now these same tourists are wondering “what can still attract them.”
Recent studies have revealed how the phenomenon of ‘adaptability’ has resulted in lower rates of pathological gambling in Macau. The study’s authors warned that the two new major projects opening in 2016 – Melco Crown Entertainment’s Studio City and Phase 2 of Galaxy Entertainment’s Galaxy Macau– may temporarily boost the problem gambling numbers and they may also give some life to Hong Kong’s tourist numbers.
Some enterprising women have done their part to provide Macau with a dose of the new – or possibly just the dose for some of their customers. The Shukan Taishu reported that many Japanese adult video (AV) actresses are making regular trips to Macau to offer wealthy Chinese businessmen the chance to sleep with the girl of their video dreams.
A source told the paper that Japanese starlets are hired by brokers who ferry the girls to Macau and set them up in five-star hotels. There they stay for a ten-day period, during which time the girls are expected to service up to five clients per day. For this, they receive a minimum of ¥500k (US $4,200) ranging up to ¥2m, with bonuses paid in the event of a three-way.
Prostitution schemes are nothing new in Macau, as evidenced by the recent bust of Stanley Ho’s nephew. The Shukan Taishu’s source said on average, blonde Russian girls fetch the top prices while most Asian girls are (not quite) dime a dozen. But Japanese AV stars “are at another level – they are extraordinary.”
Japanese porn is immensely popular in China and rich businessmen “come [to Macau] with the one intention of sleeping with these girls.” One star prompted a rich client from Beijing to bring along his collection of DVDs featuring the actress so that he could recreate certain scenes, which hopefully didn’t include any in the bukkake genre, cuz that would be one nasty cleanup for the maids.