MACAU (AP) — U.S. casino magnate Steve Wynn plans to
spend $4 billion building his long-awaited second Macau resort,
shrugging off concerns Tuesday that the global economic malaise and
China’s slowdown will dent profits in the world’s most lucrative
gambling market.
The project, which got government approval in
early May, will house 2,000 hotel rooms, 500 gaming tables, 10
restaurants, shops, spa, meeting rooms and a nightclub.
Visitors
will be able to ride Austrian-built gondolas complete with air
conditioning and piped-in music around an 3.2 hectare (eight-acre)
lagoon out front.
The 557,000 square meter (6 million square foot)
development will be built on 51 acres (126 hectares) of reclaimed land
and will take up to four years to complete. It will be financed by cash
and debt.
Wynn said he shared concerns about the state of the
world economy, saying the European crisis was "totally unpredictable"
while the U.S. economy was "spotty and irregular."
"The world is
an unsettled place," Wynn said. "China happens to be one of the more
stable stories at the moment but even here in the PRC (People’s Republic
of China) there are questions about a slowdown and change."
"We don’t see it here yet," Wynn told reporters. "Macau is sort of special in that
regard."
Wynn
said it was unrealistic for Macau’s "spectacular" casino revenue growth
rates to continue. But even if the growth rate falls in the Asian
gambling hub, he said Macau would still be a "wonderful" place to do
business.
Macau’s economy has boomed and casino revenue has
rocketed since the government ended a four-decade gambling monopoly in
2002 and allowed foreign operators in. Gaming revenue jumped 42 percent
last year to $33.5 billion, five and a half times bigger than the Las
Vegas Strip.
More than 70 percent of Wynn Resort’s $1.3 billion first-quarter profit came from its Wynn Macau Ltd.
unit.
But
casino revenues in May were the slowest in more than two years, raising
fears that the wealthy, high-rolling gamblers from mainland China
powering Macau’s growth are pulling back. The former Portuguese colony
is the only place in China where casinos are legal.
Wynn has one
casino resort in Macau at the moment. The new project will be in Cotai,
an area of reclaimed swampland that is the designated site for all
future casino expansion.
With the new project, Wynn will be trying
to catch up to rivals including billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas
Sands Corp., which has four resorts, including three on Cotai.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.