Resort conglomerate Genting has shelved plans for a casino in Miami and will focus instead on developing a luxury hotel and residences in the US coastal resort city.
Genting Group spent US$236 million two years ago to buy the five-acre site currently occupied by the Miami Herald newspaper with ambitious plans to construct 5,200 hotel rooms, commercial towers, two residential towers of 1,000 units, an outdoor promenade and a massive Resorts World-branded casino: Total price tag, $3.8 billion.
The gambling portion, however, failed to win approval in the Florida Legislature in the face of intense opposition from powers such as Disney World, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the state’s existing racetrack and racino owners.
Florida also is home to two large casinos owned by the politically influential Seminole Indian Tribe, which currently holds a state monopoly on live table games and also opposes competing privately run casinos.
Genting operates one casino in the US, at Aqueduct racetrack in the New York City borough of Queens. The company’s global reach extends to casinos in the UK, a casino in the Philippines capital of Manila, the giant Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore and its flagship Casino de Genting in Malaysia.
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