From Staff Reports
It’s certainly big enough to be a battleship. Or an aircraft carrier. So it was fitting that its grand opening on Tuesday initially seemed more like a ship’s christening: Someone smashed a bottle of champagne on the bow of boat – a gondola that will navigate one of the resorts three indoor canals – and the new $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel just off of China’s southern coast was open for business.
The Macau Venetian is the creation of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), and American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the company’s chairman and chief executive, who claims the casino-resort dwarfs everything in Las Vegas.
The Sands claims the 10.5-million square foot Venetian is actually the largest building in Asia and is the second-largest building in the world – bested only by an aircraft manufacturing plant that The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) operates in Washington State.
The Macau Special Administrative Region, usually referred to as Macau, is one of two “special administrative regions” in China – the other being Hong Kong. It is 37 miles southwest of Hong Kong and 90 miles from Guangzhou.
Overall, the Venetian boasts 3,000 rooms for guests, a sports arena with seats for 15,000, and retail space for between 300 and 400 stores. It also bills itself as the biggest gaming site on the planet: Its 550,000 square feet has sprouted more than 800 gaming tables and 3,400 “one-armed bandits” (with all-up space for 6,000). It has1.2 million square feet of convention space, fine dining and The Associated Press reports that it will also host a Cirque du Soleil-produced show.
Its decor is inspired by Venice, but with Chinese refinements.
American billionaire real-estate magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, officially opened the new Venetian by smashing the bottle against the gondola.
The creators of the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel dwarfs anything in Las Vegas and its creators actually claim it will “shift the gambling world’s magnetic north” to Macau, a region. Casinos like the Venetian have led this small city over the Vega
“Strip,” to become a hugely lucrative center for gambling and travel.
"Today is the beginning of what has been a dream of mine for some time -- to reproduce the capital of entertainment in Asia for Asians," Adelson said Tuesday at a news conference.
Stories and Related Links:
Associated Press News Report: Venetian Aims to Make Macau a Resort City.