CNBC – In the 1800s, Portuguese colonists legalized gambling on a sleepy Chinese island called Macau. That once-lolling backwater has become a glittering center for tourism in Asia, with an estimated $40 billion to $45 billion in revenue this year, according to Union Gaming Advisors, a Las Vegas based consulting firm. Nearly two centuries later, Matsu, another island formation off China’s coast, wants to grab a piece of Asia’s rapid growth in gaming. But this time, big investors such as Bill Weidner, the former president of Las Vegas Sands, are leading the resort development. (Weidner had a bad break with…