City of Dreams Casino Will Push Through

The casino industry and major investors have been quite confused by the different comments about the joint venture between Packer and Ho will push through. The big awaited venture of the two will showcase the structuring and developing of an underwater casino.

The PBL executives have indicated that the plans for building an underwater casino with a very expensive design had been shelved while Mr. Ho said that the underwater casino plan is still on the table.

Melco inform the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the proposed plan of City of Dreams would serenely float above a crystal lake. It would provide one thousand rooms that would range from boutique hotels and apartments that have theme time services.

The 72,000 sqm casino would have world class facilities for gaming in a tropical underwater environment. The casino will house over four hundred fifty gaming tables and three thousand slot machines. Another attraction is the unique underwater restaurant pavilion that will serve sumptuous foods.

The PBL/Melco Group has already announced that they are delaying their plan to open its first ever $300 million casino in Crown Macau. Both partners agreed that they want to open the hotel and the casino both at the same time. But according to sources in Macau, the plan of Crown Macau has not push through as smoothly as plan by both partners.

Mr. Packer was said to approach the Wal King, chief executive of Leighton Holdings about an Australian company to become involved in the construction of City of Dreams. Leighton Holdings had almost finished building the Wynn Macau that worth $1 billion and will open this September. Leighton is keen to keep its profitable relationship with Steve Wynn. Steve Wynn has further major projects in Macau.

Leighton Asia is composed of 2500 dedicated staff and personnel in Macau and they are planning to expand more as they are looking for other plans there as they are now looking for a possibility of a new rail project. But the decision to whether it will get involve in the construction of City of Dreams and work with a competitor is entirely in the decision of Mr. Wynn.

In the meantime, Mr. Ho announced the plans of PBL/Melco to open more poker machine parlors in Macau under the banner name of Mocha Slots. The partnership already operates 6 Mocha Slot parlors in Macau and has more than one thousand poker machines. Mr. Ho said that the group will open another 2 or 3 Mocha Slot venues in Macau and another five hundred poker machines in mid range hotels.