Asia Minute: Malaysian Company Makes a Big Splash With $4.3B Las Vegas Resort

Hawaii Public Radio
 
Asia Minute: Malaysian Company Makes a Big Splash With $4.3B Las Vegas Resort
Wild Casino

If you’re considering a trip from Hawai‘i to Las Vegas this summer, you can stop by a new casino. The latest resort in the city opened Thursday, backed by a giant in the casino hotel industry—perhaps better known for its work in Asia.

Some people may not be familiar with Genting, a Malaysian company that just opened a $4.3 billion complex on the Las Vegas Strip called Resorts World Las Vegas.

The property sprawls over 88 acres, the biggest to open on the Strip in more than 10 years.

Hilton has three hotels in the resort which also includes nine different swimming pools and a 5,000-seat theater—along with some 40 bars and restaurants.

Up to now, Genting has made a bigger mark in Asia with Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, a ski resort in China, and casinos from the Philippines to Hong Kong and Macau to its home base of Malaysia.

It’s also in contention to develop a resort casino in Yokohama, Japan—and has holdings in the United Kingdom, India and elsewhere in the United States.

The Las Vegas project has been delayed several times, and not just because of the pandemic.

One early plan was to target Asian gamblers with marketing such as a live panda habitat and a replica of the Great Wall of China.

That didn’t make it into the final design, although you also won’t find any fourth floors in the resort. In several parts of Asia, the number four sounds like the word for “death.”

The company’s hoping for a long life for its newest resort—which it says is the most expensive ever built in Las Vegas.