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HONG KONG : The Macau unit of Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands announced Friday a further delay in opening its glitzy four billion dollar casino resort in the city due to a shortage of construction workers.
Sands China, which already runs the Venetian Macau, the Four Seasons and Sands Macau, is planning a casino resort in the former Portuguese enclave turned gambling haven featuring 6,000 luxury and mid-scale hotel rooms.
But Macau has in recent months tightened restrictions on immigrant labour due to pressure from home-grown labour groups, including banning foreigners with only tourist visas from working in the city.
"Due to matters beyond the company's control, we have faced challenges acquiring the construction labour that we need quickly enough to be able to meet our original development and opening deadlines," Sands China said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It added that the company estimated it would take about 16 months to finish the first phase, "once we have sufficient labour to ramp up construction activities to requisite levels".
The first phase of the project will now open in the Cotai Strip in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the second phase six months after that, the statement said.
Adelson earlier said he expected the first phase to open in 2011, without being more specific.
The project was earlier brought to a halt during the financial crisis due to financing problems.
Macau, which was handed back to China in 1999, is the only Chinese city where casino gambling is allowed. It has overtaken Las Vegas in terms of gaming revenue after the sector was opened to foreign competition in 2002. - AFP/ch
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