The Casino at the Center of the World – 2024.11.25

 The Rui Cunha Foundation presents today, Monday, November 25th at 7:00pm, a conference titled “The Casino at the Center of the World: Chinese Tourists at the Venetian Macau”, inserted in the History and Heritage Public Lectures’ series, an active partnership between FRC and USJ – University of Saint Joseph, Department of History and Heritage, Macau.

Tim Simpson, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at University of Macau since 2001, will be the guest speaker of this lecture. The focus of this presentation is his recent book, “Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China’s Consumer Revolution” (University of Minnesota Press, 2023).

«Presented through a cross section of postcolonial studies and social theory with extensive insight into the global gambling industry, “Betting on Macau” uncovers the various roots of the territory’s lucrative casino capitalism. In turn, its trenchant analysis provides a distinctive view into China’s broader project of urbanization, its post-Mao economic reforms, and the continued rise of its consumer culture», according to Progressive Geographies publications.

The lecture’s proposal is Tim Simpson’s theory on this rather singular territory and his approach on what may be expected further ahead. «The Venetian Macau Resort is one of the world’s largest buildings, and perhaps Macau’s most popular attraction, visited by more than half of the tens of millions of Chinese tourists who enter the city each year. The Venetian’s massive gambling revenueshave been crucial to Macau’s post-colonial transformation into the most lucrative site of casino gaming in global history, and one of the wealthiest territories on the planet. This talk explores the Venetian’s function in Macau’s local regime of casino capitalism, and the city’s pedagogical role in shaping citizen-consumersfor China’s reform-era economy».

The lecture will be moderated by Priscila Roberts, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History and Heritage at the University of Saint Joseph – Macau, and shall be presented in English with 1 hour and a half duration.

Admission is free.
Don’t miss it!
For Macau, Further and Higher!

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