Cotai
Cotai shows engineered niche construction: 5.2 km² of reclaimed bay now generates 60% of Macao gaming revenue through mega-resorts built on manufactured land.
Cotai demonstrates how manufactured geography can create concentrated economic value. This 5.2-square-kilometer zone did not exist until 2005, when land reclamation filled the bay between the former islands of Taipa and Coloane. When Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands first visited, the site was still underwater. Today Cotai generates more than 60% of all Macao gaming revenue, hosting the Venetian, Galaxy, Wynn Palace, City of Dreams, Studio City, Parisian, and MGM Cotai.
The reclamation reflects Macao's existential constraint: so densely populated that only manufactured land could accommodate the mega-resorts required to compete with Las Vegas. The territory's total land area increased 39.9% over the past quarter century, mostly through Cotai and adjacent projects. This artificial substrate enabled casinos approaching the scale of the Las Vegas Strip while the historic Macau peninsula remained too cramped for comparable development.
Cotai's 2025 performance shows the strategy's success and limits. Visitation surged nearly 20% in the first half of 2025 to 19.2 million arrivals, with mainland Chinese comprising 72.4% of visitors. Gaming tax revenue reached $5.6 billion in that period. Yet the government extracted diversification commitments when renewing concessions in 2022, requiring roughly $15 billion investment over ten years with 90% dedicated to non-gaming amenities. The satellite casino model ended in 2025, consolidating the industry around these integrated resort properties. Cotai exemplifies niche construction at industrial scale: a territory built its own geography to compete in a global market, creating real estate from nothing to host an economy that couldn't fit on existing land.