The Venetian Macao is a luxury hotel and casino resort in Macau owned by the Las Vegas Sands corporation. The Venetian is a 40-story, $2.4 billion anchor for the 7 resort hotels which are under construction on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 10,500,000-square-foot (980,000 m2) Venetian Macao is modeled on its sister casino resort – the The Venetian in Las Vegas – and is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the fourth-largest building in the world by area.[1][2]
| The Venetian Macao | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Opening date | August 28, 2007 |
| No. of rooms | 3,000 Suites |
| Total gaming space | 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2) |
| Casino type | Land-Based |
| Owner | Las Vegas Sands |
| Website | Venetian Macao |
The main hotel tower was finished in July 2007 and the resort officially opened on August 28 2007.[3] The resort has 3000 suites, 1,200,000 sq ft (110,000 m2) of convention space, 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m2) of retail, 550,000 square feet (51,000 m2) of casino space – largest in the world – with 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables and a 15,000 seat arena for entertainment/sports events.
Casino
The casino is the largest in the world at 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2). It is further divided into 4 themed gaming areas namely Golden Fish, Imperial House, Red Dragon and Phoenix. The casino consists of over with 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables
The hotel offers a VIP club named Paiza Club that caters to high-rollers and premium guests. The club comes with its own entrance, lobby, reception, team of butlers and guest lifts to the suites. The gaming area of the Paiza Club is divided into individual private gaming rooms each named for notable Asian cities such as Yunnan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The guests of the club have exclusive access to the club dining outlet, the Paiza Club Dining & Lounge, which opens 24 hours a day.
Accommodation
The hotel tower offers 3000 suites which include multi-bay suites for high-rollers.The accommodation floors starts from level 7 up to level 38. These floors are served by 250 guest lifts.
Paiza suite:
- This category reserved to high-rollers and VIPs. The largest and most luxurious is the Presidente. It is a 12 bay-suite with 4 bedrooms each with own bathroom, a media room, a spacious living and dining area and butler's pantry. Two of the bedrooms come with their own massage rooms.
Concerts
A number of music groups have performed at the Venetian Arena including The Black Eyed Peas, Beyoncé, The Police, Jay Chou, Linkin Park, Alan Tam, The Pussycat Dolls, and Rain.
Sports
The Venetian Arena hosted the following list of sports events:
- Cleveland Cavaliers vs Orlando Magic NBA China Games 2007 - 20 October 2007
- Andre Agassi vs Pete Sampras Tennis Showdown - 24 November 2007
- Ray Mercer vs Derric Rossy Heavyweight Title Bout - 26 January 2008
- United States Basketball International Challenge: United States, Lithuania, Turkey
Other events
The Venetian Macao was the venue of the 2009 IIFA Awards, a large film awards ceremony event for Bollywood actors and actresses.
Zaia
This brand new show by Cirque du Soleil is a 90-minute production that brings together 75 high-calibre artists from all four corners of the globe. The show is directed by Neilson Vignola and Gilles Maheu. It opened on 27 July 2008 at the dedicated Cirque du Soleil arena.
Zaia presents a young girl's perception of the stars and planets, space and infinity, all populated by a panoply of fantastic, out-of-this-world creatures. The title, Zaia, comes from a Greek name meaning "life" and is also reminiscent of Gaia, the living, self-aware spirit of Earth.
Controversy
On 12 November 2008, the gates were locked to the construction labour force from a variety of Asian countries as projects were suspended. In addition Hsin Chong, the project manager for the Venetian laid off approx 400 staff. As many workers had been there for less than two years, no severance was due.
On 13 November 2008, Stephen Weaver, Sands' president for Asia announced that up to 11,000 workers would lose their jobs in Macau after the company halted building projects in the city.[4]
Future development
American billionaire Sheldon Adelson announced that his $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai will contribute much to launch a massive, concentrated resort area he calls the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson formally stated his plans to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton and St. Regis. Therefore, his Las Vegas Sands (which ran the Sands Macao on the Macau peninsula), plans to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.[5]
See also
- Cotai Strip
- Gambling in Macau
- Macau gaming law
- Cotai Jet - owned by The Venetian Macao, operating high speed Catamaran ferry services between Taipa Temporary Ferry Terminal and Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal, Hong Kong
References
- ^ "Las Vegas Sands' Venetian Macao Resort Hotel to open on Aug. 28". USA Today. 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Venetian Macau said to draw 114,000 visitors in first 24 hours". Associated Press. las Vegas Review-Journal. 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
- ^ Venetian Macao press release, 08/28/2007
- ^ Up to 11,000 Macau workers to lose jobs
- ^ CNN.com, China opens world's largest casino