Local media report the casino industry will require 50,000 croupiers by 2009. That's 10 percent of Macau's population.

Ho's Grand Lisboa, a towering structure shaped like a lotus flower, will be soon followed by more new casinos including MGM Grand Macau and Las Vegas Sands' The Venetian.

The latter, which will open late this year, claims to be the world's largest casino with 600,000 square feet of gambling space as well as 3,000 hotel rooms.

"There's a lot of competition for labor," said Ooi Lay Peng, vice president of human resources at MGM Grand Macau, which is hiring 6,000 staff. "Macau needs to relax its immigration laws."

FRUSTRATED INVESTORS

Workers from Hong Kong are taking jobs but many more are required as the enclave attracts growing foreign investment.

On an early evening ferry to Hong Kong, Italian businessmen chat in the front row of business class alongside Hong Kong executives.

Ferries between the cities are crammed and more infrastructure is needed, including a long-delayed 29-kilometre bridge link with Hong Kong and Zhuhai in south China, analysts say.

The overall lack of resources is frustrating investors.

"It's extremely challenging," said Ken Kress, China head of Italian menswear retailer Ermenegildo Zegna, which has two franchised stores here with local company Rainbow Group. It will open its own store this year.

"Typically we'd look for the construction phase on a store to take two months to 10 weeks but in Macau it's six months," said Kress. "For most of that time nothing is going on because the contractors and workers are moving around different projects."

The opening of the five-star Wynn Macau casino resort last year brought in Chanel, Bulgari, Prada and other luxury retailers, whose boutiques grace the resort lobby.

Macau's image however is tarnished by corruption. Its transport minister was arrested last year for allegedly accepting bribes while the United States identified local bank Banco Delta Asia as laundering money for North Korea.

Hong Kong think-tank Political and Economic Risk Consultancy says gambling money flows into Macau could be seriously hurt if Beijing were to mount an effective anti-corruption campaign.

There are signs though the city is looking beyond gaming, which in recent years contributed 50 percent of economic growth.

Last year saw the opening of Fisherman's Wharf, a retail and leisure development, while The Venetian will imitate a slice of Venice's Baroque splendor, complete with canals and gondolas, and house a 1.2 million-square-foot convention centre.

"Macau is attracting mainland Chinese who think they'll get rich by gambling. But in five to 10 years they'll know the risk of losing," said Kenneth Hsia, a businessman from Taiwan who visits Macau regularly.

"People go to Las Vegas for fun not to make money and, long term, Macau too will have to provide a lot more."

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