MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts now operate properties in the Macau Peninsula region

Wynn added that the development would use only 40 acres of his 52-acre site, leaving room for further amenities. MGM Resorts has been linked to a Cotai Strip site near Wynn's property, but company Chairman Jim Murren has not discussed plans because of the casino operator's pending initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The MGM Resorts project would be built in partnership with Hong Kong businesswoman Pansy Ho, the company's 50-50 joint venture partner in the MGM Grand Macau.

Lerner said Francis Tam, Macau's secretary of economy and finance, has said in interviews that the government wants to control gaming industry expansion "to promote orderly and planned growth." Tam was quoted as saying the number of gaming tables should grow at just a 3 to 5 % pace.
 
That growth rate could help both MGM Resorts and Wynn. Planned openings in 2012 of a Cotai Strip resort by Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment and several properties by Las Vegas Sands on Cotai could account for that year's growth.

"Our interpretation of Tam's commentary suggests that the government will allow an incremental 700 to 1,200 gaming tables by 2015, the approximate time frame, in our view, by which both MGM Resorts and Wynn Cotai properties would open," Lerner said.
 
Macau gaming revenues have surged this year, growing 60 % in the third quarter. The region's 33 casinos are expected to produce us$ 16.6 billion in gaming revenues this year, according to analysts, compared with us$ 14.9 billion in 2009.