Caesars Entertainment is engaged in a feasibility study to determine whether the operator will partner with Chinese-backed consortium ASF to build its first integrated resort in Australia, in The Spit, a parkland resort area on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Speaking to the Gold Coast Bulletin, Caesars President of International Development Steven Tight confirmed he had met Gold Coast Tourism Chairman Paul Donovan last month on a touring trip. “We are currently doing our internal feasibility study on whether another large-scale integrated resort could be supported in the Gold Coast market,” Tight said. “It would be Caesars’ first property in Australia.
All I can say at this point is Caesars Entertainment continues to evaluate opportunities throughout the region to expand our network of world-class properties.”
“It would be great to get someone of that ilk involved with the Gold Coast,” Donovan told the newspaper. “It’s the holiday destination of choice in Australia, and anything that brings that entertainment aspect and can add more value, we would have to be in sync with.”
According to the report, ASF is talking with several operators on the potential new resort. “(Caesars is) one of many,” he said. “ASF Consortium has been in ongoing discussions with a number of world-class operators. The heightened interest further validates the Queensland government’s integrated resort development process and our own research, that there is a market for another casino, especially an integrated resort which has grown the tourism pie in other.”
Not everyone was excited with the prospect—notably Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who told the Courier-Mail that the government should proceed very cautiously before adding another casino on the Gold Coast.
“There’s only so many casinos we can have on the Gold Coast—I don’t think we need to have this a casino city,” she said.
“The Gold Coast has so much to offer. There’s only one casino license available on the Coast at the moment, and our government is going through due process in relation to ASF.”
