Casino operator MGM Resorts International today announced that the opening of MGM Cotai, its second integrated resort in Macau, will be delayed to January 29, 2018. The property was previously scheduled to finally open doors in the fourth quarter of the year.
MGM Cotai’s opening has been postponed on several occasions over the past two years. The property was initially expected to welcome its first guests in the fourth quarter of 2016. However, construction delays pushed the integrated resort’s launch to the first quarter of 2017. As mentioned above, the Cotai Strip complex was then reset for late 2017 opening, but that deadline, too, will not be met.
It is believed that the latest delay could be attributed, at least partially, to Typhoon Hato. The powerful storm made its landfall in South China on August 23, battering Hong Kong and Macau and leaving casualties and scenes of destruction behind. MGM Resorts said today that all damages inflicted by Hato would be covered by the company’s insurance.
The internationally recognized casino operator also announced that it would increase the budget for its latest integrated resort from HK$26 billion to HK$27 billion (nearly US$3.5 billion).
MGM Cotai will be MGM Resorts’ second property in Macau and first on the Cotai Strip, known to be the Asian equivalent of the legendary Las Vegas Strip. Through its local subsidiary, MGM China, the gambling company will operate another integrated resort with multiple accommodation, gambling, and entertainment facilities as well as ones for meetings and conventions.
The operator has previously announced that the property will feature a “glittering jewel-like facade” that will seek to turn into Macau’s “architectural icon”.
MGM Resorts’ Plans for Further Expansion into Asia
Currently, MGM Resorts manages multiple hotel and casino properties in Las Vegas. The company also owns facilities in Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, and a number of other states. Its US presence will be expanded in Massachusetts, as well. The gambling operator will bring the integrated resort experience to the state with the 2018 opening of the $950-million MGM Springfield.
As already mentioned, MGM Resorts runs the MGM Macau integrated resort in the only Chinese territory where casino gambling is legal and will hopefully open a second resort there soon. However, Macau is not the only Asian destination targeted by the major casino and hospitality company.
MGM Resorts will be one of the certain bidders for a license for the operation of a casino resort in Japan. The country legalized casino gambling late last year paving the way for the creation what is hoped to be one of the world’s most lucrative casino markets. Some of MGM Resorts’ biggest rivals, with Hard Rock International, Las Vegas Sands, and Melco Resorts & Entertainment being some of them, have, too, expressed interest in entering Japan.
However, they will all have to wait for a little longer, as the recent call for snap election by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would delay the much-anticipated vote on a second casino bill that is intended to set out the rules under which the country’s gambling industry will be regulated.
