Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JUNE 2018 10 MELCO RESORTS & ENTERTAINMENT CEO Lawrence Ho has revealed that The Countdown Hotel – formerly known as Crown Hotel – at City of Dreams will be rebranded Libertine when its new luxury offering Morpheus opens for business. Ho also unveiled 15 June 2018 as the official opening date of Morpheus during a busy day in which he delivered the keynote address at G2E Asia 2018, sharing for the first time a series of details around the US$1 billion-plus upgrade of flagship Macau IR City of Dreams which includes the Zada Hadid-designed Morpheus. Among the new features at City of Dreams will be an innovative “pop-up” retail space in which stores can be mixed and matched at will. “We have reinvented retail,” Ho said. “For the first time ever we will be creating our own shopping environment, inviting some of the coolest brands in the world in a 1,500 square meter space that we will be running ourselves as a pop-up. “It will be a totally different take on the retail proposition.” Ho also revealed that the company will unveil a new stunt show at fellow Macau integrated resort Studio City in December – a collaboration with renowned entertainment architecture firm Stufish. LAWRENCE HO REVEALS NEW HOTEL BRAND LIBERTINE AHEAD OF MORPHEUS LAUNCH Border gate facilities slowing Macau growth: Wilfred Wong Sands China Executive Director, President and COO, Dr Wilfred Wong, says that the current border crossing facility between Macau and mainland China is holding the city back from its full potential. Speaking on a panel at G2E Asia examining the transformation of Macau into the global gaming powerhouse it is today, Dr Wong said that the number of people crossing from China into Macau via the border gate could possibly double if better access was provided, stating, “A better border crossing facility would certainly improve the future for Macau. “At the moment the border is a bottleneck and a deterrent for many people,” he said. “If we were to open that up I can see visitation doubling.” Dr Wong noted that hotel supply remained another ongoing concern for Macau which might prevent any significant uptick in the number of arrivals through the border gate, but that “these are important questions we need to ask for Macau going forward.”