Under capacity

New investments in Cotai risk generating what economists and finance analysts call “overcapacity,” that is: a situation in which availability and supply far exceed customer demands or expectations. Though the market has changed in the last couple of years, the gambling industry has been obstinately fulfilling its prior plans. Except for a few delays and the occasional altercations with the government over, say, the number of gambling tables allowed to feature in the now-coveted mass floor plateau, lavish new hotels and casino facilities are stubbornly maintaining their original expectations, puzzling to the more sceptical. Despite the gloomy economic scenario within which they have become entrapped – with little warning – enormous casino complexes continue to rise, gleaming. Consolidating the era of the so-called “Integrated Resort,” they are re-scaling gambling into a whole new entertainment portfolio. When Cotai’s current developments are completed, thousands of rooms and dozens of leisure activities and gastronomic offerings will be made available. While these projects may seem oversized, their monumentality seems to imply permanence. On the other side of the SAR’s new “gambling land,” however, daily life continues with different contingencies. In the saturated, charming peninsula, the impact of casinos has somewhat spread its tentacles through parts of old Macau, simply because the city was already there when they first emerged. To be sure, the gambling axis of Avenida da Amizade bordering ZAPE and NAPE, is a modern protuberance within the old city fabric. But it is still connected to some of the main routes and public transportation links between residential areas and schools, shops, and public services. This is a huge problem, though hardly new. Mainland workers, for instance, have to cross the Border Gate back and forth each day to reach sites in Cotai. Thousands of tourists also flow into the peninsula on a daily basis, creating congestion for the city and its transportation system. At peak hours, buses are overcrowded. Shuttle buses have added to the already huge number of vehicles circulating in Macau’s narrow streets. Traffic jams can happen at any time. Urban planning is failing to accommodate the increasing burden on the city’s squeezed spaces, harshly revealing the peninsula’s under-capacity to cope with new flows of people. This is a burden that can no longer be sidestepped in public action and debate.