Closings were in the news yesterday, but there was a big opening in Macau as well. From the AP:

Thousands of gamblers crowded into American billionaire Stephen Wynn’s new $1.2 billion casino resort on Wednesday in Macau — the Chinese territory that may soon unseat the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s most profitable gambling capital.

Fireworks showered the Wynn Macau with sparks just before its midnight opening. A huge sign lit up with red lights, while speakers blared Frank Sinatra’s “Luck be a Lady” outside the 600-room complex that hopes to lure China’s swelling population of gamblers.

Macau — a peninsula and two islands off the southeastern Chinese coast — is the only place in China that allows casino gambling. The tiny territory — less than one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C. — was a Portuguese enclave until it was handed back to China in 1999.

Zhu Jingqing, a middle-aged man from the central Chinese province of Hubei, was in the huge crowd that rushed into the casino when it opened.

“I feel that all mainlanders should come here to have a look,” he said.

Kong Ermu, 28, a Chinese tourist from the eastern province of Anhui, said, “It’s far better than what I imagined. It’s classier and comfortable.”

Wynn, 65, was one of two Las Vegas gaming tycoons who were allowed to open casinos here after the government in 2002 broke up a monopoly controlled by local mogul Stanley Ho for 40 years. Ho’s casinos were smokey, dingy venues — far from the glitz and sparkle of Las Vegas.

Ending the monopoly sparked a building boom that will bring an estimated 2,200 new hotel rooms into the market this year and another 15,000 in 2008.

“The speed of development is dizzying. The population it seeks to serve is expanding,” Wynn told reporters just hours before his resort’s midnight opening.

Many believe that Macau will soon overtake the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s casino capital. Last year, Macau was about even with the Las Vegas Strip, which had “win,” or net amount lost to casinos, of $5.3 billion. Experts see Macau’s gambling revenue growing quickly to $9 billion to $11 billion by 2010 and upward of $15 billion by 2012.

U.S. Mogul Wynn Opens Macau Casino

Of course, time will tell if Wynn is right–some, including Sheldon Adelson, say he’s not–but if the past is any predictor, he will be.

I’m in Atlantic City, and the big news is the purchase and imminent closing of the Sands. You can read about it from the Inquirer:

Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. will buy the Sands Hotel & Casino – the smallest casino in an Atlantic City that has been getting bigger and brighter – and a neighboring site along the Boardwalk, for about $250 million.

Yesterday’s announcement capped weeks of speculation about Pinnacle’s plans to try to acquire an Atlantic City casino. The company was outbid in May in its protracted attempt to buy Aztar Corp., the owner of the Tropicana Casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

The Sands and the adjacent land, which is the site of the former Traymore hotel, are owned by business entities affiliated with billionaire Carl Icahn. Pinnacle will pay an additional $20 million for some tax-related benefits and other real estate.

Icahn, the owner of three casinos in Las Vegas, took control of Atlantic City’s Sands in 2000.

The companies said the hotel-casino would be closed by mid-November, with 2,100 employees to get 60 days’ notice of the expected date. They will receive severance packages.

“It’s a great location, but you will have to tear down and start from scratch,” said gambling analyst Larry Klatzkin of New York-based Jefferies & Co.

That appears to be the game plan. The statement from Pinnacle and the Sands said there were plans to close, demolish, and later replace the existing casino with a bigger casino hotel.

Pinnacle to buy Sands, adjacent Boardwalk site

Now all Pinnacle has to do is to name the new casino the Traymore, and build something suitably magnificent. In this post I give my rationale for it all.

Projects like the Belterra and especially the L’Auberge du Lac are signs that Pinnacle has the right idea. I’d hate to see a bland 25-story, 1000-room, 3000-slot Casino Magic or Boomtown get built on the Boardwalk, though. With Borgata leading the way, and MGM Mirage’s City Center East possibly waiting in the wings, you’re going to have to build something different and iconic to make an impression.

The Borgata had a great game plan–build the nicest property in town, and plan to expand. I think that Pinnacle will have enough room to follow this blueprint, and develop a true masterplan for the property before they even raze it. For all I know they already have.

There’s a downside, of course: the 2000 people who will lose their jobs in November, which is usually a tough month to get hired anyway. Hopefully Pinnacle will help them with job placement. And the other casinos should be onthe lookout, because there will be some very talented people at all levels looking for work.

In Las Vegas, there’s a story of another closing. The legendary Stardust will be closing its doors November 1. Straight from the press release, which was short and to the point:

Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE: BYD) today announced that it is planning to close the Stardust Resort and Casino on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. The Company will begin demolition of the Stardust in the first quarter of 2007 to make way for its Echelon Place development.

I thought that maybe they’d try to make it through the New Year, but that won’t be happening. This is hardly a surprise to anyone, because we’ve known that work on Echelon Place would be starting in 2007. But releasing an official date gives it a sense of finality that we didn’t have before.