Inside Asian Gaming

7 enetian Macao-Resort-Hotel took the limelight with its grand opening on the Cotai Strip on August 28. The property is said to be the second-largest building in the world, and the biggest in Asia. It features 3,000 all-suite guest rooms, 870 gaming ta- bles, over 3,400 slot machines, 1.2m sq. ft of convention and exhibition space, 1m sq.ft of retail space, a 1,800-seat theatre and 15,000- seat arena. Its US$2.4bn project cost is the highest Macau has seen to date. According to our US gaming analyst Bill Lerner, occu- pancy at Venetian could reach 85-95% just a month after the property opens. Length of stay is expected at 3-4 days, above the cur- rent market average (1.5 days). In addition to the Venetian, Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) is developing another six projects along the Cotai Strip, with casi- nos, hotels and retail amenities. The hotels will be managed by leading hotel chains including Four Seasons, Sheraton, St Regis, Shangri-la, Traders, Hilton, Conrad, Fairmont, Raffles, Swiss Hotel, Intercontinental, Holi- day Inn and Cosmopolitan. All properties will be connected by air-conditioned pe- destrian walkways. On completion by 2010, the company’s six partner sites should boast a further 8,400 hotel rooms, 1,800 gaming tables and 9,000 slots. The Anchor Drops Deutsche Bank’s Karen Tang comments on the Venetian debut and the emergence of non-gaming revenue draws in Macau V