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Las Vegas is not the world's biggest gambling mecca – and that's just fine with Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), which happens to hold four properties in the Chinese territory of Macau.
Macau, you see, wrested that title away from Las Vegas back in 2006 – with hotels and casinos that are mind-blowing in size and scope – even by extravagant Las Vegas standards.
In 2012, Macau's gross gaming revenue eclipsed that of the Las Vegas Strip by five and a half times. And there seems to be no end in sight for these rising revenue figures. In August, revenue for Macau rose 17.6% year over year, which equates to more than $3.8 billion in revenue.
Macau's success is a direct result of the rising prosperity of the Chinese people. After all, more than 60% of the visitors to Macau are Chinese, and that percentage is still growing.
But what about all the hand-wringing over the slowdown of China's economy? While it's true the Chinese stock market is down substantially since its peak in 2009, the nation is still growing at 7.5% per year, more than three times the pace of the U.S. economy.
And as Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald recently wrote, "For all the hype surrounding its seemingly inglorious fall from grace after leading the world out of the global financial crisis, the country is still in the early innings of what will go down as the greatest wealth creation mankind has ever seen."
In fact, Keith has uncovered some shocking numbers about China…
China is slowly switching to a consumer-based growth economy – much like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have done. Which means that Macau's growth story, fueled by an emergent Chinese middle class willing to use their huge amount of discretionary spending to travel, vacation, and gamble, has a long, long way to go.
That makes Las Vegas Sands stock something you're definitely going to want to place some chips on.
Here's a closer look at why LVS has been on such a hot streak…