US company Las Vegas Sands is due, on 28 August, to open its third hotel in Macau, this time managed by the Four Seasons chain and which will include a retail area and a casino. The new casino, which is opening a year after The Venetian, will have around 170 gaming tables and 210 slot machines as well as an entrance separate from both the hotel and the retail area. The hotel will have 360 rooms, five restaurants, two bars and a spa, whilst the retail area...

James Packer and Lawrence Ho, two sons of billionaires, opened a USD 524 million casino in Macau in May 2007. It was a flop. The empty building was "eerie," the 31-year-old son of casino magnate Stanley Ho said in an interview. Three months after Crown Macau's grand opening, the two co-chairmen of Melco Crown Entertainment, its Hong Kong-based owner, decided it was time to "throw in a nuclear bomb," Ho said.

Hong Kong (Reuters) - Private equity firm Carlyle Group has bought two residential towers in the Chinese casino enclave of Macau, a statement from the deal's broker said. The deal, announced by Jones Lang LaSalle, was worth about USD 250 million, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday. A Carlyle spokeswoman declined to comment on the price the firm paid Macau developer Sin Kin Wan Group for two of the five 35-storey towers in the "Lot KL" project.

The outlook for Macau's gaming industry, which has been plagued by visitor restrictions imposed by the mainland government and commission caps, is expected to remain flat with a lack of catalysts, according to analysts. "The recent events have compounded these fears [of a pending supply glut and its impact on the mass market players], and we see no respite in the third quarter," Citi analyst Anil Daswani wrote in a report.

When asked how he managed to get an investment certificate to build the USD 4.2-billion Asian Coast Development Ltd. casino and beach resort complex in Communist Vietnam -- one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations in Asia -- Michael Aymong smiles and says: "Simple. You just have to want to try." The Toronto native now living in Vancouver then gives an analogy that any self-respecting Canuck would understand...

Hong Kong (Dow Jones) - Las Vegas Sands Corp., the hotel and gaming company run by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, is seeking to raise USD 7 billion in loans for its Macau project, people familiar with the situation said. The fund-raising for the Venetian Resort & Casino in Macau comes at a time when investors are seeking high-risk premiums and banks are wary of making major loans.

The biggest players in the gaming business have long wondered exactly how Sheldon Adelson’s company won one of three lucrative casino licenses in 2002 to operate in Macau. It was the deal of a lifetime — one that made Adelson one of the world’s richest men and spawned an Asian gaming frontier richer than the Las Vegas Strip and evolving to adult size in one-tenth the time.

Tourists are spending more when travelling to Macau, with figures from the Statistics and Census Services showing an increase of 15.08 percent to 145.79 in the Tourist Price Index (TPI) in the first quarter of this year, compared to last year. The price indices of miscellaneous goods, restaurant services and accommodation registered significant increase of 33.75 percent, 19.52 percent and 13.34 percent, respectively, with increments attributable to dearer jewellery prices driven by rising gold prices...

Steve Wynn is a man who not only makes the preposterous possible, but also profitable. The casino mogul and billionaire turned Las Vegas from a strip of gambling dens into a global attraction, helping to foster the Vegas ideal that it is a place consenting adults can see and do just about anything imaginable (plus, of course, gamble 24-hours a day).

Hong Kong (Reuters) - The number of visitors to Macau jumped almost 23 percent last year, putting the fast-growing gambling haven on track to surpass neighbouring Hong Kong. The tiny, former Portuguese-ruled enclave of about half a million people registered more than 27 million arrivals in 2007, up 22.7 percent from the previous year, according to government statistics.

Steve Wynn’s Macau resort will add 85 gaming tables and 551 slots in an expansion scheduled to open next Monday December, 24th. The expansion, which also features a new rotunda entrance, brings the casino resort’s total to 390 tables and 1,190 slot machines, Wynn Resorts Ltd. said in a statement from Las Vegas this week. The statement didn’t say how much the expansion cost, and Wynn Resorts didn’t immediately respond to a reporter’s e-mail seeking the information.

The Hos may have been a dealt a bad hand when they lost their casino empire, but, like the veteran gamblers they are, these folks know how to make a comeback. MGM Mirage opened its MGM Grand Macau on Tuesday bringing out high rollers from around the globe. The USD 1.3 billion hotel and casino is a joint venture between the Las Vegas-based casino operator and Pansy Ho, daughter of former Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho.