 |
CityCenter Casinos Opening Brings Hope and Fear to Gambling Town
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA --
After years of trials and tribulations, MGM Mirage's joint venture with Dubai World is finally ready to be opened to the public. City Center, the mammoth casino, gambling, and resort complex on the Las Vegas Strip, will open in sections over the next several weeks.
The Mandarin Oriental Resort is scheduled to open this week, along with the Crystals retail shopping complex. The Aria casino and hotel, perhaps the main piece of the CityCenter puzzle, will open before Christmas, and several condo developments follow in January.
The project teetered for most of the last year on falling into bankruptcy, even reaching a point at which MGM had to grant Dubai concessions on their agreement in order to keep Dubai payments coming, as Dubai spokesmen said they needed reassurance after MGM allowed itself to reach financial crisis.
After that was settled, Dubai found itself in turnaround last week as it announced it would negotiate suspension of interest payments on its accumulated debt, leaving MGM officials to hurriedly guarantee the media that Dubai's contribution is complete.
Now that the hotels and gambling palaces are starting operations, Las Vegas residents are of two minds. The area, hard-hit by unemployment, rejoices over the 12,000 jobs that CityCenter will provide once fully functional. But casino industry insiders fear the added competition to a soft resort, tourist, and gambling market may well exacerbate financial troubles for casino companies.
Previous USA Casino News Articles
Post A Comment
|
 |
