Dec. 15 is the Cosmopolitan‘s date with destiny. That’s when it begins rolling out its room inventory and casino product. That doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? It’s hard to get worked up about a place so grammatically challenged it invites us to come and “game” in its casino. It’s “gambling,” Deutsche Bank. Stop being so damn squeamish.
One of the nice things, though, about being owned by a bank is that even if you’re still $1.1 billion away from completion (after billions have already been sunk into the Cosmo), resort CEO John Unwin is still rolling in liquidity. Even though Deutsche Bank is “only” into the former Ian Bruce Eichner megaresort for $2.1 billion, the anemic performance of next-door neighbor CityCenter shows how difficult making the “nut” on the Cosmo is going to be … although customers at least won’t have to hump up a long slope to get to this casino when they want to “game.”
“Prodigiously over-budget.” No, it’s not the Cosmo but Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, in the words of Asia Times correspondent Muhammad Cohen. Vegas casinos can but marvel at the ADRs — starting at $257 — commanded by the two new über-megaresorts (Marina Bay’s cost is now pegged at $5.7 billion). Who knew that Resorts World sported an art collection ranging from Rodin to Chihuly? Or that Genting and Las Vegas Sands wages are so dirt-cheap that their properties must be staffed with workers jobbed in from as far away as China?
Cohen concludes that, for all the initial fanfare, the casinos will be literally and figuratively “on the fringe” of the Singaporean economy. However, with the city-state already measuring 30% jumps in visitation, its government is likely to view the “integrated resorts” as a mission accomplished.
“game” in its casino. It’s “gambling,”…
– I read it as ‘Game on!’ – sorta like “Our game is really ON today!”