Macao’s gaming market grew at a rate that defied even the most bullish expectations last year to become five times bigger than Las Vegas, powered by the eagerness of China’s nouveaux riches to gamble.

The former Portuguese colony on Tuesday announced that December’s gaming revenue rose 25 per cent from a year ago, taking the year’s total to $33.5bn, up 42.2 per cent from the previous year.

“Following the 57 per cent growth in Macao’s gaming revenue in 2010, nobody expected the market to grow at the rate that we have seen. At the beginning of 2011, we were expecting a 20 per cent growth for that year, and we were among the most bullish in the sector,” said Aaron Fischer, Asia head of consumer and gaming research at CLSA.

The world’s largest gaming centre survived 2011 untouched by a severe credit tightening cycle and a sharp slowdown in export demand, which had a punishing impact on business and the property market in China.

Macao is the only Chinese city where casinos are allowed to operate and the market has captured the rise in the nation’s wealth by expanding more than 17-fold in the last decade. The average disposable income of a Chinese urban dweller has been growing at about 9 per cent a year, based on official statistics.

At the heart of Macao’s phenomenal growth was the Chinese people’s penchant for games of fortune. Revenues in the city’s casinos could eventually exceed the whole of the US market, which currently yields $60bn in a year, Mr Fischer said.

“It’s true that Americans are still a lot wealthier on average than people in mainland China, but I would guess that a Chinese gambler would bet up to 10 times more than his American counterpart,” he said.