Fortunes really do spin on a dime. Macao last year overtook Las Vegas as the world’s biggest gambling den by revenues. As palatial casinos sprang up on vast tracts of land, the enclave throbbed to the staccato of pneumatic drills. Silence is returning. Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands project was this week forced to down tools until the gambling magnate scrapes together some more cash; others have also gone eerily quiet.

The tables turned earlier this year. The credit crunch coincided with new restrictions on Chinese tourists to Macao, the only part of China where gambling is legal. Gaming revenues, too, have tumbled. Gross revenues have fallen by a third from January to under $900m in September. As casinos mushroomed, competition escalated. Commission rates were jacked up and, just like banks, operators were too keen to extend credit to players. Wynn Resorts’ Macao business illustrates the point. Adjusted property earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – which excludes pre-opening costs and property charges, among other expenses – has grown on a quarterly basis, or stayed flat, since the beginning of last year. In the third quarter, however, it dipped 40 per cent quarter-on-quarter.