Negotiated in 1987, the resumption of Chinese rule over the six-square mile peninsula on the western edge of the Pearl River delta ends 442 years of Portuguese colonial control. A public holiday was declared across China and the Chinese state media gave saturation coverage to the event. Macau does not have the same economic or strategic importance as Hong Kong, which was returned by Britain to China in 1997. The major industry on Macau is not banking and finance but gambling. Each day at least 150 ferries commute from Hong Kong to Macau, bringing thousands of gamblers.
Thousands more cross over from mainland China, or fly in from Singapore or elsewhere in Asia.
Its taxation payments represent 60-70 percent of the government's revenue. Associated with the legal gambling are the activities of the Chinese mafia, or Triads, which earn lucrative commissions for organising visits to Macau by groups of wealthy gamblers, the so-called high rollers. Macau was one of the countries hardest hit by the Asian economic crisis. The flow of wealthy businessmen to Macau's casinos ebbed and STDM's gambling profits fell by 50 percent in 1998. Last year, the territory's economy contracted by 6.8 percent and unemployment soared to more than 6 percent.