Echo wins Brisbane casino resort bid

Sydney

ECHO Entertainment Group Ltd won the right to develop a gambling resort in the centre of Brisbane, fending off competition from billionaire James Packer's Crown Resorts Ltd which broke its Sydney casino monopoly two years ago.

A consortium led by Echo and including Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd and Far East Consortium International Ltd will be the preferred bidder for the river-front site, Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a media conference on Monday. The resort could cost as much as A$2 billion (S$2.02 billion), according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

The project is a wager that spending in Australia's casinos can grow fast enough to absorb as many as three new major resorts over the next five years, even after gambling revenues in Macau fell 36 per cent in June. The value of bets by high-rollers at Echo's existing casinos almost doubled in the six months ended December as an anti-graft crackdown in China drove Macau gamblers elsewhere in the region, Echo said in February.

"This development will change Brisbane's CBD," Ms Palaszczuk said. "I am very excited about the proposal and the project and we know what this means for Brisbane, making it a premium tourist destination." BLOOMBERG