Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is in advanced talks to secure land in Macao, the Chinese special administrative region, on which it intends to build a $3bn casino resort complex.

Macao overtook the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s biggest gaming centre by revenues in October. Sir Richard, the UK entrepreneur who founded an airline-to-mobile-phone empire, is close to acquiring a prime 50-acre site on which he plans to build an entertainment complex featuring three hotels and a casino, his group’s first.