Win-win game : celebrating Hotel and Casino Lisboa as cultural heritage

Abstract

This thesis aims to use Macau’s longest running Hotel and Casino Lisboa as a subject for the discussion of casino heritage worldwide. Opportunely, Macau is not only an international gambling destination, but also a historic city where Western culture has had the longest settlement in Asia. Despite of Macau’s reputation as the “new” capital of gambling, the city has a long history in casino industry that is often overlooked in the middle of new casino projects and famed heritage sites.

Hotel Lisboa, being one of the casinos built before the casino boom, holds an important spot in Macau physically and socially. Through historical research, survey and interviews, heritage values of Hotel Lisboa are determined for its potential inclusion in the protected list under Macau Heritage Protection Law or perhaps in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Criteria of both lists are considered. Lastly, the proposal of casino heritage is raised.

Considering Macau’s gambling industry had mostly taken place in the old city center where some of the previous casino buildings and related sites are left vacant, casino heritage cluster is proposed to retell the history of Macau’s gambling industry by choreographing a narrative route.