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Why Las Vegas’ CityCenter resort and gaming complex isn’t a laughing matter
UncategorizedCityCenter never had it easy. MGM Resorts International announced plans to build the $4 billion development in 2004 during the height of Las Vegas’ boom. By the time the project wrapped up four years later, its construction budget had ballooned to almost $10 billion and the city was sinking into a historic recession that almost [...]
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Americans are gambling again: Casino revenue rises 5% in 2012
DestinationsMore gamblers are hitting the slots and blackjack tables in the U.S., giving the industry a 4.8% boost in 2012, its biggest since the recession. Consumer spending at casinos grew to $37.3 billion, slightly below the industry’s 2007 record high at $37.5 billion, according to a report released Monday from the American Gaming Assn. The [...]
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Las Vegas’ transformation from casino capital into international dance party
DestinationsTo step into club XS at the Wynn Las Vegas is to enter the dreamscape of a modern artist with fetishes for gold and bronze and bodies in motion. A golden-plated frieze made from casts of nude women sits atop a shimmering staircase. Waves of electronic dance music grow louder with each downward step toward [...]
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Hong Kong casino group buys another lucrative Macau resort to lure Chinese tourists
DestinationsGalaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., the casino operator that doubled its profit last year, is buying the Grand Waldo resort in Macau for HK$3.25 billion ($419 million) to lure more Chinese tourists. Galaxy will buy Grand Waldo land and buildings, including a 29,700 square-meter hotel, from units of Get Nice Holdings Ltd., according to statements from [...]
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Luxury brands take a page from casinos and cater to Chinese overseas
DestinationsWith flagging sales in their mainland stores and increasingly price savvy consumers, luxury companies are taking a leaf out of casinos’ play books by offering junkets to wealthy Chinese clients eager to splurge in their Hong Kong stores. For companies like PPR and LVMH, who have spent the past few years building stores across China, [...]
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Macau casinos turn to Dreamworks to make gaming more family-friendly
DestinationsAs Beijing signals a tightening of the leash in Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal, casino operators are signing up characters from Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar to burnish their family-friendly reputation. Sands China, the world’s biggest casino operator, announced on Tuesday that it would partner with DreamWorks Animation to attract more middle [...]
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Wynn Resorts profit on the rise thanks to Vegas bump, but Macau growth slows
DestinationsWynn Resorts Ltd., the casino company run by billionaire Steve Wynn, reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, helped by gains in Las Vegas. Excluding some items, profit was $2.03 a share, beating the $1.55 average of 24 analysts’ estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 5 percent to $1.38 billion, matching forecasts of [...]
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Japanese casino group pushes for approval of $10 billion gaming market
DestinationsAfter Singapore, Japan? A pro-casino group of Japanese lawmakers has tapped an influential member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as its leader and plans to submit legislation this year aimed at opening the world’s third-largest economy to casino gambling. Although casinos are illegal, Japanese are already active gamblers, and a pinball-like game called [...]
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Las Vegas sighs with relief after Malaysian gaming group invests
DestinationsFor nearly five years, the steel-and-concrete skeleton of the abandoned resort project has taunted this city, a glaring reminder that casino operators here can’t win every economic wager they place. The stalled Echelon project sits on hallowed gambling ground: It’s where the old Stardust casino was imploded. Construction on the new $4-billion resort began in [...]
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Cyprus turns to tourism and casinos to kickstart economy
DestinationsCyprus’ president said Friday that the bailed-out country will open casinos and bolster its tourism sector to get the economy going again. Nicos Anastasiades unveiled a first batch of measures he said are designed to boost growth in an economy that is projected to shrink by 13 percent until 2015. Anastasiades included casino openings among [...]
