HONG KONG -- Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is upping the ante against Macau competitors Friday by launching a ferry service from Hong Kong to the outlying strip of reclaimed land he hopes to transform into a massive gambling and vacation resort.

Macau's current ferry terminal is located on its mainland peninsula linked to China. That's where the casinos of many of Adelson's rivals are located, including Steve Wynn's Wynn Macau and Stanley Ho's Lisboa and Grand Lisboa.

The new CotaiJet service is based at a temporary terminal located near the reclaimed Cotai strip linking the outlying Taipa and Coloane islands. Billionaire Adelson -- who also runs Las Vegas Sands Corp. -- recently opened The Venetian Macao casino-resort at Cotai and is building other hotels nearby. Competitor Melco PBL is also building the City of Dreams resort on Cotai.

The new ferry service will start off running 20 daily rides on high-speed catamaran vessels to and from Macau, with the first ship leaving Hong Kong at 7 a.m. and the last ship leaving Macau at 5 p.m., according to its Web site.

The Venetian Macao currently runs free shuttle bus services across a bridge from the resort to the old ferry terminal on the mainland, a trip that takes about 15 minutes. The new ferry terminal will shorten that trip.

The CotaiJet service also plans to expand to rides from the Hong Kong airport to the pier near Cotai.

The new ferry services pose a double threat to Ho, who held a monopoly on casinos in Macau until 2002. The businessman's Shun Tak Group also runs the popular Turbojet ferry service from Hong Kong to the old Macau ferry pier.

The Shun Tak service has seen a visible increase in passenger traffic with the opening of new casinos in Macau, and the new ferry will likely take away some of that boost in business.

"There's clearly a very strong demand here that isn't being met," Las Vegas Sands Asia president Stephen Weaver was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post Friday.

A one-way economy class ticket from Hong Kong to Macau on the CotaiJet service on a weekday costs HK$134 (US$17; £á12) for the one-hour trip -- about the same fare charged by Turbojet.

Adelson said earlier this month initial results showed guests at the new Venetian Macao are staying longer than the market's average stay of 1.2 nights, boding well for his ambition of transforming Macau from a one-day gambling trip to a multi-day vacation destination.

The opening costs for The Venetian Macao helped contribute to a US$48.5 million (£á32.9 million) loss in the third quarter for Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp. despite a 19.5 percent rise in revenue to US$661.0 million (£á448.5 million).