If you build it, they will come. The premise worked for a while in Macau. But now Asia’s gambling paradise is in more than a spot of bother. Gross gaming revenues fell by 11 per cent in April, year on year, and by almost 15 per cent from March. Total takings dropped more than a fifth from the all-time high of $1.3bn recorded in January last year.

For now, the only thing going up is buildings: City of Dreams, Melco Crown Entertainment’s $2.1bn rival to Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian, throws open its doors to punters in three weeks. That could give the market at least a short-term boost. Revenues across the city-state rose by a quarter after the Venetian opened in August 2007, compared with takings during the three prior months.