From CNN
Triad attacks. Prostitute calling cards. Illicit money flows.
This is the dark underbelly of Macau — Asia’s gambling capital. The only Chinese territory where casinos are permitted, the city has transformed itself in little more than a decade from a sleepy backwater to a neon-lit monument to China’s passion for gambling.
Gambling revenues in the city surpassed Las Vegas in 2006 and are now six times greater. But the former Portuguese colony’s dramatic rise has come at a cost, with many in Macau questioning whether growth has been too fast and furious.
“You really don’t know whether society as a whole has benefited,” said Samuel Huang, an associate professor in gambling studies at the Macau Polytechnic Institute.
Portuguese lawyer Jorge Menezes, 47, has experienced first hand the city’s more brutal side.
Last month, he was attacked in broad daylight by two men as he walked his five-year-old son to pre-school in what he believes was an intimidation attempt linked to his work as a lawyer.
“I was walking with my son and suddenly I felt a huge blow on the back of my head,” he told CNN from his office just a block away from where the attack took place.
