AusLeisure

Co-owner James Packer has attended the launch of the Macau's City of Dreams casino complex.

Six years in the making, the 40,000 metre2 facility will eventually offer more than 500 casino tables, more than 1,500 gaming machines, three world-class hotels, more than 20 bars and restaurants, a shopping strip and a 2,000-seat theatre.

It is the only casino opening in Macau this year - at a time when visitor numbers and gaming revenues are suffering from the global financial crisis.

Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal, already takes in more gaming dollars than Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined on the back of a rush of deep-pocketed Chinese gamblers. But worries over money laundering, corruption and unease about Chinese cash being vacuumed up by foreign operators who have swarmed into the city led mainland authorities last year to stem the flow of visitors.

For Packer and his Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), the $3 billion venture is the cornerstone of his move into the international casino business.

Shortly after his father Kerry's death in 2005, Packer began to shift the primary focus of the family empire from media to gaming. He sold a controlling stake in the Nine Network and ACP magazines stable, investing instead in casino ventures in the USA and Macau through the Crown group.

Lawrence Ho, Packer's partner in the project and the son of Macau's original gaming tycoon, Stanley Ho, aims to create a destination for visitors interested in more than gambling stating that "with more quality attractions ... and more diverse entertainment, I think gone are the days where our visitors are purely here for gambling."

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