Popular Culture Review Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer 2006 | Page 28

24 Popular Culture Review slots include bars that serve alcoholic drinks to patrons who watch sports on screens and play video poker. Additional sections of the floor are set aside for sports betting, poker, and keno. Many Las Vegas casinos also have VIP areas roped off for higher stakes gambling. These areas are often semi-formal (dealers wear tuxedos) venues set up with a few baccarat tables. However, it is generally believed that the real high stakes gambling takes place in rooms that are more private and out of view of the public. The Macau casino floors are very different. Asian gamblers are primarily card players. The game of choice in Macau is baccarat. While blackjack and other games are also found, baccarat is clearly the most popular. The floor is a sea of card tables, with small spaces devoted to video/slot machines (see Table 1). The slots are often found on the periphery of the floor, against the walls and in hallways. While the smallest casinos in Las Vegas offer numerous slots but few table games, the smallest casinos in Macau feature table games and few if any slots. In a recent visit to Macau, the authors found the tables crammed with customers, but the slots were lightly utilized. Like the Sands Macau, the new American-sponsored casinos will offer many more slot machines than are found in the traditional Macau casinos. The Wynn Macau will offer 850 machines on it