Inside Asian Gaming

March 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING be able to line up outside the ‘venue within a venue’ for each show, just like in a real theme park. That theme park feeling is arguably the most groundbreaking feature of Dragon’s Treasure, setting it apart from other extravagant free attractions, such as the breathtaking Fountain Show outside the Bellagio in Vegas. A telling point in terms of the design of City of Dreams and its bid to create a mousetrap effect via interwoven attractions is that The Bubble and its show will be next door to The Boulevard, which MPEL describes as a ‘lifestyle precinct’. This is more PR guff meaning a shopping and restaurant complex. As visitors are waiting for the show, they can while away the time with a little window-shopping or indeed the real thing. But is this significantly different froma regular shoppingmall with a multi-screen cinema or ice rink attached to it?Well yes, because you don’t find baccarat, blackjack, roulette and craps tables next door to most shopping malls or family theme parks. The company says the initial phase of City of Dreams will open “in the first half” of this year. Along with The Bubble and its show, it will feature a 420,000 square foot casino with approximately 550 gaming tables and 1,500 gaming machines; over 20 restaurants and bars; and what it describes as “an impressive array” of some of the world’s leading retail brands. The Crown Towers Hotel and the Hard Rock Hotel offering a total of around 600 rooms will also be part of phase one. They will be joined by the 800-room Grand Hyatt Macau in the third quarter of 2009. Soon after that, a Cirque du Soleil-style theatre production “inspired” (but not apparently actually produced) by former Cirque director Franco Dragone and his company will open in the resort’s purpose-built Theatre of Dreams. Parallels Casino operators are of course sensitive about comparisons between integrated gaming resorts and theme parks, pointing out that the two areas are kept distinct, and that they, as responsible licensed operators, are not in the business of soliciting or otherwise encouraging minors to gamble. Nonetheless, the ‘elephant in the casino’ with any scheme to create an integrated, family-friendly gaming resort is that the family fun must stop well short of the gaming floor. Inevitably, and in a Las Vegas manner, The Bubble, its Dragon’s Treasure content, and no doubt the popcorn and hotdogs sold inside or nearby, will all have their own trademarks. MPEL will certainly be hoping that such theme park-style content will give it a much-needed edge during the current recession, and help it move away from Macau’s traditional reliance on hardened mainland Chinese gamblers by attracting theme park-style, free- spending family visitors. 47 Artist’s impression of City of Dreams Advertise with Inside Asian Gaming For advertising enquiries, please email: ads@asgam.com or call Matt at: +852 95797383