Crowds go marching in

The Venetian Macao pulled in a record number of visitors to a single property, attracting 58,000 within five hours from its opening, shortly after 7pm until midnight on Tuesday.

Moreover, the Venetian's opening appears to have actually boosted the fortunes of hotel-casino resorts on the main Macau peninsula. Site visits the next day to both Wynn and Starworld, neighbors on the Avenida da Amizade, revealed full-as-usual gaming floors; spokespeople at both hotels reported near-maximum capacity in their rooms. Across the road at the Grand Lisboa, whose hotel is not yet open, attendance was more than 30,000 on the day, above average, according to a spokesperson.

Casino executives seemed generally unfazed by the opening of the world's biggest gaming floor on Cotai, which for most visitors involves a trip across one of Macau's three bridges from the peninsula. "Did something open there yesterday?" a senior executive at the Galaxy Entertainment Group quipped.

It's hardly surprising that casino executives are sounding so optimistic, as in July Macau recorded total arrivals of 2,208,327, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.5%. It seems Macau is on track to overtake Hong Kong for visitor arrivals by the end of the year.