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Bigger Is Best?

Does it matter how big a casino is? Not how big the jackpot is but how many square feet of carpet there is?

US billionaire Sheldon Adelson has opened the $US2.4 billion Venetian Macau, the world's biggest casino.

The casino is housed in the world's second-biggest building - second only to the Boeing plant in Washington State, US, it is claimed. It features a casino, hotel and Manchester United's new ground.

Ok, the last bit I made up. But Manchester United played a warm-up there a few months ago. And they love that Asian market...

The casino is very tasteful and not in the least big tacky. The lagoons and canals and singing gondoliers are top notch.

It is big enough to house 90 Boeing 747s. You can't shoot craps on airplanes, yet. But the Venetian has 850 gaming tables and 4100 poker machines, a 3000-suite (not room!) hotel, a 350-store shopping complex and a sports stadium that will hold 15,000 people.

It is bigger than the Sands Macau waterfront casino, which was the world's biggest, with 740 tables and more than 1200 poker machines. It is owned by, er, Adelson. (Who says competition is healthy?)

And now it is built they will come. The Venetian will have 111,000 square metres of convention space - double that of neighbouring Hong Kong - and its own permanent Cirque de Soleil troupe and dedicated theatre.

And a chocolate fountain...