After selling men's clothes and accessories in China for almost 20 years, Playboy Enterprise Inc will open a 40,000 square-foot entertainment complex, including gaming facilities and bunny-suited waitresses, in Macao in late 2009.

Playboy Mansion Macao will include dining, entertainment and retail shops, company Chairman and Chief Executive Christie Hefner said in Macao yesterday. It will be part of the Macao Studio City complex, with gaming operations run by casino operator Melco International Development Ltd, Hefner said.

Macao Studio City, a US$2 billion joint venture between Hong Kong-listed ESun Holdings Ltd and partners, including Silver Point Capital LLC, is next to the Lotus Bridge, which will link Macao and Zhuhai City on the Chinese mainland. It will include a film studio, a million-square-foot shopping mall, and gaming and convention facilities.

Macao, with a population of 500,000, is the closest location for the 1.3 billion people in China to gamble legally in casinos.

"The mainland market is important, but we are aiming to grow the market in the region and beyond the region," said Hefner.

Macao receives 40 million visitors each year.

"Seventy percent of visitors are from the mainland," said Ambrose Cheung, co-chief executive officer of Macao Studio City. "I think the number of mainland visitors will grow but the percentage will drop as more international visitors will come."

The Macao government awarded licenses to five other operators and ended billionaire Stanley Ho's gaming monopoly in 2002. By this year's first quarter, 25 casinos were operating in the 26-square-kilometer territory, creating concern the industry may be starting to get crowded.

Macao's gambling revenue surged 22 percent to US$6.95 billion last year, surpassing the Las Vegas Strip, as it added seven new casinos, bringing the total to 24.

Macao had 2,762 gaming tables in the year to December 31, double that of the year before, according to the Website of the city's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.

Macao's economy grew 16.6 percent last year, compared with 6.9 percent in 2005 and 28.4 percent in 2004, the year the city's first foreign-operated casino began operating.