Crown Casino to start a us$ 100 million upgrade

A Crown board meeting last week is said to have signed off on final plans for a new gaming, food and beverage area at the western end of the Crown casino complex, reported The Australian.

The plans are said to include a new casino targeted at a younger clientele, using the additional gaming table licenses made available to Crown after the State government's extension of its overall license to operate in 2009.

Under the terms of that deal the Victorian government extended the number of gaming tables permitted under Crown Melbourne's license by 150, in return for a higher tax on electronic gaming machines.

Under the deal, Crown is paying us$ 132 million in extra taxes over four years to lift the number of gaming tables allowed at Crown to 500. "This development will help broaden the appeal of the complex to the growing mass-market," a source said.

The formal details of the new spending plans, said to be worth just over us$ 90 million, are expected to be announced as soon as this week.

Crown and rival Tabcorp Holdings, owner of Sydney's Star City and the Gold Coast's Jupiters casinos, are spending billions of dollars on big capital expenditure programs, including revamped VIP gaming floors and hotels.

Crown is spending more than us$ 300 million this year to refurbish the Crown casino in Melbourne and the Burswood casino in Perth. It will spend another us$ 700 million in the next two years. Between 2009 and 2013, it will have spent more than us$ 1.5 billion.

Crown is doubling the size of its premium gaming floor, the Mahogany Room. It has a big presence in the Chinese gaming enclave of Macau through a joint venture with Lawrence Ho's Melco. Tabcorp is also spending on its Star City casino in Sydney and has launched its first personalised jet service for high rollers.