Stephen Wynn ready to open casino  in Macau

Wynn is famous for displaying fine art at his properties, and reception areas at the Wynn Macau feature two original French impressionist paintings: Henri Matisse’s “The Persian Robe” and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Among the Roses.”

The casino opened two years after Wynn’s arch nemesis from Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson, opened his gleaming Sands Macau. The casino has been wildly successful, and Adelson recouped his investment within the first year.

Many believe that Macau will soon overtake the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s casino capital. Last year, Macau was about even with the Las Vegas Strip, which had income of US$5.3 billion.

Some expect Macau to surpass the Las Vegas Strip this year because of a wave of new attractions opening. A theme park, the Fisherman’s Wharf, began operating earlier this year and another casino, Galaxy Star World, is to open in a month or so.

For about 40 years, Macau’s casino industry was a monopoly controlled by local tycoon Stanley Ho. The monopoly ended in 2002 when the government decided to offer concessions to foreign companies. Adelson and Wynn were the only two Las Vegas moguls to be granted full concessions.

Last week, Adelson swung through Macau and criticized Wynn’s resort. Adelson, ranked No. 14 on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 richest people, said the resort would “only do OK” because it was too small and didn’t feature enough attractions.

But Wynn argued that quality was the most important factor for being successful, and he was confident that customers would be drawn to his fancy, high-end resort.

“We never wanted to be the biggest,” Wynn said. “We only enjoy being the best.”

He said that Wynn Resorts would be a Chinese company in the next eight to nine years. He said that already about one-third of the company’s 15,000 employees were Chinese.

“I suppose that number and percentage will grow rapidly in the future,” he said.

MORE FROM WORLD BUSINESS

World business Section Front

U.S. financial panic goes global EU reaches agreement on tackling bank crisis Global efforts to tackle credit crisis diverge   Iceland teeters on the brink of bankruptcy World markets waver after Fed’s bold move Global turmoil could reverse prosperity World struggles with unified response to crisis French bank to take majority stake in Fortis Germany guarantees all private bank accounts Banking giant UBS to cut 2,000 jobs World business Section Front   Add World business headlines to your news reader: