Macau, the former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong, has been in the news lately.

Asia’s gambling Mecca, Macau has just surpassed Las Vegas in total gambling revenue. VIP gamblers, some of them mainland officials clutching manbags full of dubious cash, on average spend seven times more than their Las Vegas counterparts. Big Las Vegas names, like The Sands and the Wynn, have moved in and given a luster of respectability to the quaint city.

Macau’s also been in the news because of North Korean funny money. The U.S. government blacklisted a bank there in September 2005 for alleging helping North Korea move fake U.S. $100 bills into the world market.

Now there’s more news. Reports have surfaced that the eldest son of the “Dear Leader,” North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, is either residing or taking a long vacation in Macau.

The son is Kim Jong-nam, who was caught back in 2001 trying to sneak into Japan to visit Disney Land. Rotund like his father, he was with a four-year-old boy, whom he claimed as his son, and carried a fake Dominican passport with the Chinese name Pang Xiong, which means “Fat Bear.” A former South Korean intel analyst told me last fall the son’s been trotting around Asia since then, wary of going back to North Korea, where he’s been on the outs with other family members in a succession struggle. Wikipedia has a fairly extensive report that coincides with what I was told.

The story broke in Tokyo’s Yomiuri Shimbun. Here’s the short English version. It says the son is having a problem with a Hong Kong bank. Another report in Seoul’s Chosun Ilbo is more indepth. It says Kim Jong-nam has hooked up with Chinese “princelings,” or offspring of Communist Party bigwigs, namely former President Jiang Zemin, in business deals. The group is colloquially called Taizidang, or the “princeling’s clique.” The South China Morning Post also has a story, but it is behind a subscription wall.

However you cut it, Macau city leaders will be displeased at the publicity.

I must add, by the way, that Macau is a delightful space-warp of a place. The black-and-white tile sidewalks are reminiscent of Rio, and the food in the cafes seems straight from Portugal. Macau has quieted down from the rough-and-tumble days of past decades, when a mobster named “Broken Tooth” ruled the night. But you still hear rumors about people with nicknames like “Big Sister Cat.”