Crown scraps Las Vegas casino - The Sydney Morning Herald - 4th June 2008

The developers of a $US5 billion ($A5.2 billion) Las Vegas casino have decided to scrap the project due to tight credit markets, one of the developers, Crown Ltd said.

Crown said it would write off its $44 million investment in the project.

Casino firm Crown, owned by billionaire James Packer, along with Texas developer Christopher Milam and private equity firm York Capital Management, had planned to build the tallest tower in Las Vegas as part of the casino complex and 5000-room hotel project.

Crown chief executive Rowen Craigie said following a strategic review it had stopped making payments to the vendors of the former Wet 'n' Wild site at the northern end of Las Vegas's famed Strip.

''The recent upheavals in world credit markets have made it increasingly difficult for Crown and its partners to develop a commercially viable project on what remains an attractive location on the Las Vegas strip,'' Craigie said in a statement.

The move follows reports at the end of March that the development group had failed to find another equity partner to meet its lenders' demands.

Crown shares were up as much as 0.3%, or 3 cents, at $10.45 in early trade.

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