MACAO, June 3 (Xinhuanet) -- When MGM Mirage, a US-based hotel and casino company, broke its first ground here on Wednesday, it seemed that more and more international hands are seeking plays in Macao's casino boom.

    Mirage is to build a 975-million-US dollar casino resort, branded MGM Grand Macau, in the special administrative region, now the only territory of China where casino gambling is legal.

    The MGM Grand Macau project, when completed in 2007, will be a unique structure located on a prime waterfront site in Macao's central Nam Van gaming district.

    Terry Lanni, running officer of MGM Mirage, said while addressing the ground-breaking ceremony Wednesday, "Our decision to invest in Macao's future came some time ago. Recent financial indications in the market simply reinforce our decision and our desire to get to work."

    "The strong partnership with Pansy Ho (member of the local gaming tycoon Ho's family) will enable us to combine our collective experience to do something special in Macao," Lanni added.

    The 600-room resort will rocket 28 floors into the sky and as the shimmering glass of the building reflects the South China Sea, the shape of the building itself will reflect the rolling swell of the ocean surf.

    The casino will feature 300 table games and 1,000 slot machines with rooms for significant expansion. Other features planned at the resort cover a luxurious spa, convertible convention space, entertainment facilities and a variety of dining destinations.

    MGM Mirage, holding a 50-percent stake of the project, boasts one of the world leading hotel and gaming companies. It owns and operates 24 properties in the United States.

    And Lanni, the running officer, said, "We definitely want to build more than one such casino in Macao."

    The new casino will be located neighboring another which is under construction by the Las Vegas gambling operator Steve Wynn, and near the Lisboa hotel casino, owned by the local tycoon Stanley Ho, Pansy's father.

    Macao, which scrapped Stanley Ho's over 40-year gambling monopoly in 2002, surpassed Atlantic City in 2004 to become the world's second-largest gaming market.

    "With the anticipated performance in Macao for the next five to10 years, it's not a question of whether the operators may be over-investing, but rather are they possibly under-investing," Lanni told the gathering at the ceremony.

    The assumption elaborates why more and more western gaming businesses are stretching hands to the east.

    Macao's economy grew a record 28 percent in 2004, more than three times the pace of that in neighboring Hong Kong, where the lottery, horse racing and betting on soccer are the only legitimate forms of gambling.

    The gross domestic product of Macao, which returned to the motherland from Portuguese rule in 1999, totaled 10.3 billion US dollars in 2004, with gambling expenditures contributing half.

    Gaming revenue of Macao may match that of Las Vegas by 2008, many analysts forecasted, and MGM Mirage is hardly the only one which smells the prospect.

    The Las Vegas Sands, a world gaming giant, launched the 240-million-dollar Sands Cacao in May 2004 and it is to add a 345-million-dollar wing to the old body.

    Even non-conventional gaming businesses are to take a bite of the cake.

    E-Sun Holdings, a Hong Kong-based media enterprise, had won conditional approval from the Macao government in the near past to develop a hotel complex.

    The e-Sun project, worth 643 million dollars, will include three hotels, a television and film studio, a concert hall and a convention center.

    And, for sure, at least one of the hotels will cover a casino.

    There are 17 casinos currently operating in Macao, a city with an over 200-year gaming history. The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region forecasts that visitors to the city may nearly double to 30 million in 2007, when MGM Grand Macau will be cemented.

    The market potential will certainly not be neglected by gaming sharks, at home and abroad. Enditem