Lifestyle See and do

House of cards sets a new world record in Macau

Written by Pai Yao

This article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2010 issue of World Gaming magazine.

The great thing about Macau is that there is always plenty to see and do. The other great thing about Macau is that you will see things here that you will never see anywhere else in the world. The Venetian is currently the location for a new world record as champion ‘house of cards’ builder Bryan Berg struts his stuff in Macau. He is constructing a replica of the Venetian, the Sands and the Plaza Macau all with regular playing cards. He has worked tirelessly for days at the Venetian in front of amazed crowds and onlookers.

The Bryan Berg story is quite an amazing one. The eccentric American was born in 1975 and ended up studying architecture at Iowa State University. He went on to obtain a Master of Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was building card houses well before that and broke his first world record at the age of 17 (a tower built of cards which stood 4.67 metres tall) before he went on to complete his studies. He has been commissioned now over 10 times to break his old world records but this is the first time Macau visitors will get to see his work and this will surely be his most inspirational masterpiece.

House of cards world record holder Bryan Berg

House of cards world record holder Bryan Berg

Bryan doesn’t use glue or tape and doesn’t even bend or manipulate the cards. To break this world record he will use over 200,000 regular playing cards. He is also holding workshops for children to teach them how to stack and build card houses.

On 20 March he will use an air blower to bring down his incredible structure. The knockdown event will be quite a spectacle as over 200,000 cards come crashing back down to earth. All of his hard work will only be remembered in people’s memories and photos. Another amazing memory will be created at the Venetian Macau for the one lucky ‘Cardstacker Sweepstake’ winner who will walk away with HK$1 million on the same day. The lucky winner will have to draw out the lucky gold card that was used in the construction and helped Bryan break another world record.

If you want to see Bryan and his incredible ‘house of cards’ and enter the ‘Cardstacker Sweepstake’ head down to the Venetian Macau and watch history being created.