MGM Mirage gets Stanley Ho's first gaming sub-concession

Casino mogul Stanley Ho on Tuesday signed his first gaming sub-concession contract paving way for the Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage to invest in casino projects in Macao.

MGM Mirage paid 200 million US dollars with other affiliated terms to buy a 18-year sub-concession from the Macao Gaming Co. Ltd. (SJM) owned by Stanley Ho through its 50-50 percent joint venture with Ho's daughter Pansy Ho.

MGM pledged an investment of 900 million US dollars to build a casino-hotel, which is slated for opening by the end of 2007. Under the contract, MGM should not pay any commission to SJM from its future revenues.

The company planned to kick off construction of the 200,000- square meter complex in the southern water-front of the Macao Peninsula, neighboring Stanley Ho's flagship casino -- Hotel Lisboa, in the middle of the year.

Pansy Ho, director of the new joint venture said that new sub- concession holders in Macao must have strong gaming operational ability to deserve a share of the market, which will eventually contribute to the healthy development of Macao's gaming industry.

Stanley Ho, as managing director of SJM, had virtually dominated Macao's gaming industry for 43 years until May 2004, when the first foreign casino Sands Macao invested by the Las Vegas Sands was erected in Macao.

The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government's decision to break the gaming market monopoly has led to the issue of three gaming operation concessions in 2002. Four companies came in through a public bidding including Stanley Ho's SJM, Wynn Resorts, Galaxy Resort and Casino and The Venetian, which operates as a separately managed sub-concession of Galaxy.

Source: Xinhua