Betting on the Strip

With its kilometers of flashing neon and monster casinos that look like billion-dollar monuments to kitsch, the Las Vegas Strip might seem impossiblenot to mention inadvisableto replicate. But Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands and the city's richest developer, thinks America's gambling mecca is ripe for cloning. Last week he flew to Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal, to unveil a glittering scale model of the Cotai Strip, a $12-15 billion development modeled on Las Vegas' famed stretch of luxury hotels and gaming dens.

Macau has been undergoing an economic boom...