Question of the Day - 10 April 2024

Yes, the unusual street names in Las Vegas do tend to be out in the neighborhoods. Examples include: Hocus Pocus Place, Abracadabra Avenue, Houdini Street, and the all-purpose Magic Way in a subdivision off Boulder Highway in Henderson; Bonaparte Lane, French Alps Avenue, Joan of Arc Street, King Louis Street, and Marie Antoinette Street in the fancy Anthem district; and Lovers Knot Court, Wild Thing Court, Kisses Avenue, and even Hanky Panky Street up in the north valley by Tule Springs. 

Goh Tong Way runs between Sammy Davis Jr. Drive and Genting Way, which connects to the Strip. It commemorates the father of the current chairman of Genting Group, the owner, developer, and operator of Resorts World Las Vegas.

Lim Goh Tong, a Chinese-Malaysian, was the Malaysian equivalent of Steve Wynn and Kirk Kerkorian combined; where everyone else saw a remote hilltop in the Malay highlands, the elder Lim saw -- and financed and built -- Genting Highlands, one of the largest and most successful casino-resorts in the world. 

Like Kerkorian, Lim made his fortune as an entrepreneur, trading in heavy-construction machinery after WW II, then founding and operating one of the largest construction companies in Malaysia. 

Lim conceived of a hill resort in 1965 when he was in his late 40s and located his ideal mountaintop at 6,000 feet just 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Kuala Lumpur, capital city of Malaysia. Even that close, he had to mount a major expedition just to get there and was entirely on his own; he received no government assistance, none of his contractor friends and associates wanted anything to do with the project, and he spent his entire fortune building the resort. Just as it was about to open in early 1971, a 100-year storm washed out the whole access road and Lim had to start from scratch in constructing a new one. Genting Highlands finally opened in May of that year.

His investment and all his efforts paid off in the end: Today, Resorts World Genting comprises Malaysia’s only legal casino, along with seven hotels, two amusement parks, and five shopping malls. It's widely considered the pioneer of the integrated-resort concept. 

When he died in 2007 at the age of 89, Lim Goh Tong was one of the wealthiest men in Malaysia, with an estimated fortune of nearly $5 billion. By then, he'd also been married for 63 years and had six children, one of whom, Lim Kok Thay, or K.T. Lim as he's known around here, is the current chairman of Genting. 

With the street name Goh Tong Way, K.T. Lim honors his father, whose lifelong dream was to open a casino in Las Vegas.