Sands’ $4.4 billion Macau resort opens today

MACAU -- Las Vegas Sands' Macau casino operator today opens its long-delayed fourth resort, a $4.4-billion complex that is its latest bet on continued strong growth in the world's biggest gambling market.

Sands China Ltd. was set to open the doors of the Sands Cotai Central with a high-wire tightrope performance and the unveiling of a 5,500-pound bronze and gold "God of Fortune" statue. The project's completion was delayed several years by the global financial crisis and worker shortages.

The resort will open in stages, with the first phase featuring 340 gaming tables and 40 VIP rooms for high-rollers. Another 200 tables will be added later this year.

It's the 35th casino to open in Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Macau's gambling revenues rose 27 percent in the first three months of 2012, after rocketing 42 percent last year to $33.5 billion, more than five times the amount earned by casinos on the Strip.

Macau's casino boom has been powered by wealthy gamblers from mainland China, most of them betting big on baccarat in private rooms. They typically play with money borrowed from so-called "junket operators," who arrange gambling trips for high-rollers and collect debts when they return home. High rollers are estimated to account for more than two-thirds of gambling revenue in Macau.

Macau was a Portuguese colony for centuries before it was returned to China in 1999. In 2002, the government ended a 40-year gambling monopoly, opening the way for foreign operators to enter. The ensuing casino boom has transformed the city on the southern edge of China from a sleepy former colonial outpost into a glitzy and bustling tourist destination.

Along with market leader SJM Holdings Ltd., Sands competes with other big U.S. players like Wynn Resorts Ltd. and MGM Resorts International as well as Hong Kong operators like Galaxy Entertainment. Revenue from Hong Kong-listed Sands China accounted for half of parent company Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s $9.4 billion revenue in 2011.

Sands Cotai Central is the only new casino scheduled to open this year in Macau. Paintings of snowcapped peaks on the casino floor and fake boulders in the shopping mall are aimed at evoking a Himalayan mountain theme. It's located in Cotai, an area of reclaimed swampland that combines the names of the two islands that it connects, Coloane and Taipa. It sits across the street from two other Sands developments, the Venetian Macao and Plaza Macao.

No more new casinos are expected to open until at least 2015, which analysts say will help Sands gain market share thanks to the expected growth of so-called mass market visitors drawn by shopping and other non-gambling attractions in Cotai.