Casino titan opens $4.3 billion Las Vegas Resort – the city’s most expensive

Malaysian casino operator Genting Group is celebrating a $4.3 billion (€3.6 billion) investment in Las Vegas, as it opens a huge new resort in the city – the most expensive ever developed.

Resorts World Las Vegas covers almost 88 acres, has 3,500 hotel rooms and suites, a 5,000-seat theatre and one of the world’s biggest LED screens on one of its tower.

For the resort, Genting partnered with US hospitality behemoth Hilton Worldwide, which has three hotels in the resort.

The site was purchased in 2013, after a project failed by a previous owner.

The resort initially aimed to attract Asian gamblers, though these plans were scrapped for a less themed approach, although a notable quirk in its design is that there are no fourth floors in the hotels because four is seen as an unlucky number in many Asian cultures.

The unveiling of the resort comes against the backdrop of a slowly rebounding Vegas casino industry.

The city was especially hard hit by measures to slow the spread of COVID in 2020, when slumped by more than 50 per cent as casinos closed their doors for three months.

Whilst tourists are now returning, they remain significantly below their 2019 levels. Between March and April this year, visitor numbers jumped over 15 per cent on the period the year before, but this was still more than 27 per cent lower than in 2019, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Genting Group is also currently aiming to embark on developing a major resort in Japan’s Yokohama City.

The company, which is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which has operations around the world, including China, the US, India and the UK.