This summer Macao-watchers had their eyes trained not on the former Portuguese colony, but the Adventist Hospital in Happy Valley on neighbouring Hong Kong.
Day after day, journalists and cameramen waited outside the hospital, hoping to get the latest news of Stanley Ho, an 87-year-old casino magnate from Macao, who was admitted to a high-security ward in July after suffering a fall at home.
The family and companies of the tycoon have shed little light on his situation, saying only that he is recovering. His transfer to Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital in late September did not end the media frenzy. Reporters only shifted camp.
That Mr Ho's health has become everyone's focus highlights the significance of the most powerful businessman in a city of 500,000 people. Mr Ho has investments in everything from properties to ferries, but his most important asset is his gaming licence, which he has held since 1961.
Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, his flagship company, was the sole casino operator in the city until 2002, when the government decided to end his monopoly and allow competition.
The move was instrumental in transforming Macao from a smoke-filled gambling den to the world's largest casino centre. Gross gaming revenues jumped fourfold from HK$27.8bn (US$3.6bn)in 2003 to HK$105.6bn in 2008, or bigger than what the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City generated together.
But the introduction of five additional casino operators put pressure on Mr Ho, known as the “king of gambling”. He now competes with two of the US's best-known gaming moguls, Sheldon Adelson and Steven Wynn, plus Hong Kong tycoon Lui Chee-woo – and with his children, Lawrence and Pansy.
Mr Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was the first foreign operator to set up shop in Macao. The opening of Sands Macao in 2004 was greeted with so much interest that visitors broke fences and smashed windows as they rushed in.
The opening of Wynn Macao in 2006 and Venetian by Sands in 2007 continued to change the competitive landscape, as gamblers were lured to their glitzy gaming floors and swanky restaurants.
The aim was to turn Macao from a day-trip market to an overnight travel destination, although that had not been very successful, since tourists typically stay only 1.3 days in Macao, similar to the average duration 10 years ago and just over a third of the 3.5 days in Las Vegas.
But both Lawrence and Pansy have opted for the foreign model. Having teamed up with James Packer's Crown and MGM Mirage respectively, Mr Ho's two children now effectively compete with their father with sleek casino resorts that Mr Ho has refused to build.
In June, Melco Crown, the joint-venture between Lawrence and Mr Packer, opened Macao's newest casino. The $2.1bn City of Dreams helped the company double its market share to almost 18 per cent in July.
Despite that, Mr Ho's SJM remains the biggest force in Macao – its 19 casinos account for about 30 per cent of the market.
And the good news for him and other operators is that after a slow first half, when gaming revenues fell 12.4 per cent year-on-year to $6.4bn, Macao is packed again as if the recession had never happened.
The city had its best month ever in August, when gamblers swamped the baccarat tables in its 32 casinos and visitors queued for hours to watch a cartoon show of Dragon Pearl and its mysterious power in the City of Dreams.
Visa restrictions on residents in neighbouring Guangdong province, one of Macao's most important feeder markets, were relaxed recently, with gamblers now allowed to visit once a month compared with once every three months previously.
