Wynn Building Massive Cotai Casino in Macau

As many people know, the region of Macau is booming, and many consider it the world’s foremost gambling capital. This being said, plenty of the biggest casino companies are looking to stake their claim in this gambling gold mine, which includes Wynn Resorts Limited. And owner Steve Wynn is hoping to make his newest Macau resort - the Cotai - one of the biggest and best casinos that the world has ever seen. Here is a look at some of the details involved with this project.

At this point, there’s no definitive name behind Wynn Resorts new casino, but it’s being dubbed “the Cotai” since the complex will be built on the budding Cotai Strip. And this is certainly a prime piece of real estate to sit on because Cotai casinos are pulling in about four times as much revenue as Las Vegas Strip casinos.

Owner Steve Wynn is hoping that his new project, which will sit behind the City of Dreams and Las Vegas Sands, will join in the success. He was quoted as saying, “I believe the Cotai project is the best work we have done. It's a departure in many aspects. It has many new things and new approaches to the way the property is presented. I think the public is going to be very excited. It's very comfortable and user-friendly.“

He finished by adding, “Now that we have nine years of experience in Macau, as you saw with Encore we are learning how to really address the emotional and physical needs of our guests. That kind of insight comes with time and experience. Thankfully we have the experience.”

In regards to the statistics on this casino, the project comes with a massive $2.5 billion price tag, which is double what their current casino, the Wynn Macau, cost to complete. The venture will be pretty expensive to operate too because the predicted staff is going to feature 8,000-9,000 workers. Right now, there are no confirmed numbers on the amount of hotel rooms or blackjack casino tables that will be at the Cotai establishment. But both are expected to far exceed the Wynn Macau’s 600 hotel rooms and 212 gambling tables.

While it’s exciting that the Wynn has undertaken this project, it’s difficult to say when the Cotai casino will be finished. Initially, Steve Wynn was hoping that everything would be finished by late 2014 or early 2015. However, at this point, it’s looking like the project could take until 2016 to finish.

The reason for the delay is because Wynn Resorts had to wait until they got approval from the Macau government before they could kick things off. Fortunately, that approval has finally come, and the future casino is currently being built.

One of the biggest stories to come out of the Cotai project involved the expensive Chinese vases that Steve Wynn bought for the future hotel rooms. At a prestigious London auction, Wynn bid an eye-popping $12.8 million for dozens of 4-foot-tall vases from the early 1800’s.

The big vases are embellished with Buddhist symbols, and they were formerly owned by wealthy Scottish aristocrats. However, the vases are actually from Macau, so they’ll be returning back to their original destination. Wynn plans to decorate some of their posh Cotai hotel rooms with the pricey vases.

The new Cotai casino stands an excellent chance of success due to Wynn Resort’s past track record. This is especially the case with the Wynn Macau, which has seen its value increase six times since being built in 2006. In fact, this incredible increase is a huge reason why Wynn Resorts chose to build another casino in the area.

It will definitely be interesting to see if the newest casino can match Wynn Macau’s number of spectacles, which includes the “Performance Lake” (fountain of fire, water and lights) and “Golden Tree of Prosperity” (24-karat gold display of leaves and branches). Seeing as how the budget is even bigger for the Cotai casino, it’s a safe bet that you can expect similar impressive features when Cotai is completed.