Wynn opens hotel-casino in Macau, By Patrick Frater - Variety Business - 5th September 2008

HONG KONG -- Wynn Resorts, Steve Wynn's casino group, on Tuesday opened its first luxury hotel-casino in Macau.

Facility significantly ups the stakes in the already booming gaming industry in Macau, which is a Chinese Special Administrative Area, and Southeast Asia as a whole.

Launch was marked by a huge fireworks display and dispensing of free gaming chips.

The Wynn Macau complex adds 200 gaming tables, 380 slot machines and 600 hotel rooms.

In recent days a war of words has broken out between Stanley Ho, the incumbent mogul, and the Sands group, which already operates one casino in Macau. But several more casinos are expected to come on stream in the next years, including a Macau version of the Venetian.

These are expected to intensify competition, drive the sector upmarket and create a need for entertainment, convention and other ancillary activities that will deliver other revenue streams.

According to analysts at investment bank Merrill Lynch, Macau's gambling business already is bigger than that of Las Vegas, but its overall revenues currently fall well short.

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