Cotai is a 5.2 km² piece of newly reclaimed land between Taipa

Taipa

Taipa is the smaller of the two islands in the Chinese special administrative region of Macao .- Geography :It is 2.5 kilometres from Macau Peninsula and east of the Lesser Hengqin Island of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province...

 and Coloane

Coloane

Coloane is one of the two main islands of the Macau Special Administrative Region, located directly south of Macau's other main island, Taipa , and east of Hengqin Island of Zhuhai in Guangdong province....

 islands in Macau

Macau

Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...

, that has not yet been assigned to any of the freguesia

Freguesia

Freguesia is the Portuguese term for a secondary local administrative unit in Portugal and some of its former colonies, and a former secondary local administrative unit in Macau, roughly equivalent to an administrative parish. A freguesia is a subdivision of a concelho, the Portuguese synonym term...

s. The Chinese and Portuguese names are a portmanteau of the two islands, Coloane and Taipa.

Cotai was created to provide Macau with a new gambling and tourism area since Macau is so densely populated and land is scarce. The Cotai Strip

Cotai Strip

The Cotai Strip is the casino and tourism project in the Cotai District, Macau, inspired by the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, USA, on a considerably smaller scale....

 is the name used more commonly for this area in Cotai where the casinos and hotels are currently being built.

Galaxy entertainment's Grand Waldo Hotel was the first casino to commence operations in Cotai, opening its doors in May, 2006. The construction of many other casino and hotel projects is currently underway. The most notable of which is Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands Corp. is an integrated resort company based in Paradise, Nevada, USA.-History:Founded in 1988, the company was the owner and operator of the Sands Hotel, which was demolished in 1996 to make room for The Venetian, which opened in 1999....

' Venetian Macao, which opened its doors on August 28, 2007.

In 2006, a new hospital was founded in the Cotai area, the MUST Hospital, which is associated with the Macau University of Science and Technology

Macau University of Science and Technology

The Macau University of Science and Technology （Portuguese： Universidade de Ciência e Tecnologia de Macau； Traditional Chinese： 澳門科技大學; Simplified Chinese： 澳门科技大学） is located in the Macau S.A.R. on the Cotai Strip opposite the Venetian Macau on Taipa Island, next to the Macau International Airport...

.