Casino developer MGM Mirage (MGM) said it would open its debut property in the Chinese gambling destination of Macau on December 18. The USD 1.25 billion project is a joint venture with Pansy Ho, daughter of Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho, a gambling industry veteran.

The resort will feature 600 rooms, suites and villas; 375 table games; 900 slot machines; and 16 high-end private gambling salons. It also has a conservatory called Grand Praca that is three times the size of a seasonal botanical garden at its Las Vegas property, the Bellagio, and was designed with the traditional Portuguese architecture of Macau, a former colony, in mind, said MGM Mirage spokesman Gordon Absher.

The 35-story MGM Grand Macau will be staffed by 6,000 employees. MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni said in a statement that the opening would mark „the beginning of a new era in Macau,“ which has overtaken the Las Vegas Strip as the top gambling revenue generator in the world.

Ho’s father ran the casino monopoly in Macau for four decades until liberalization in 2002. She said the resort represents „the first of many“ the partnership would develop in Macau.

The joint company, MGM Grand Paradise Ltd., is already in talks with the Macau government to develop a second site on an area of reclaimed land known as the Cotai Strip.