WongBo
WongBo
  • Threads: 62
  • Posts: 2126
Joined: Feb 3, 2012
April 11th, 2012 at 2:12:26 PM permalink
Sands launches $4.4B Macau casino-resort

KELVIN CHAN | April 11, 2012 04:45 PM EST |

MACAU — U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Macau casino operator on Wednesday launched its long-delayed fourth resort, a $4.4 billion complex that is its latest bet on continued strong growth in the world's biggest gambling market.

Sands China Ltd. executives opened the doors to the Sands Cotai Central following a traditional Chinese dragon dance, high-wire tightrope performance and the unveiling of a 2,500 kilogram (5,500 pound) bronze and gold "God of Fortune" statue. Completion was delayed several years by the global financial crisis and worker shortages.

People started lining up to get in about five hours before the grand opening, security guards said, and the queue snaked around the side of the building by the time the doors opened.

The resort will open in stages. The first phase has 340 gaming tables and 40 VIP rooms for high-rollers. Another 200 tables will be added later this year. Paintings of snowcapped peaks on the casino floor and fake boulders in the shopping mall are aimed at evoking a Himalayan mountain theme.

It's the 35th casino to open in Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Macau's gambling revenues rose 27 percent in the first three months of 2012, after rocketing 42 percent last year to $33.5 billion, more than five times the amount earned by Las Vegas Strip casinos. Growth has been powered by hordes of wealthy high-rolling gamblers from mainland China, who are estimated to account for more than two-thirds of total gambling revenue.

No more new casinos are expected to open until at least 2015 because of the time needed for government approval and construction.

Sands China's next project will be a 3,600-room resort on a nearby plot for which it is currently seeking planning approval, said Adelson, chairman of both Sands China and U.S.-based parent Las Vegas Sands Corp.
In a bet, there is a fool and a thief. - Proverb.
  • Jump to: