MGM Mirage eyeing new casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Mirage wants to build a hotel-casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, N.J., by the end of the decade, the company's chief financial officer and president said Thursday.

Jim Murren told an audience after his keynote address at the 25th annual Financial Executives Gaming Forum that the resort would be a "big one" and cost well over $1 billion.

Murren said MGM Mirage would make a decision after the Bellagio's new $375 million hotel tower is completed in Las Vegas in late 2004.

"The jury is out on that," Murren said about which state is the preferred location.

If MGM Mirage chose to build the hotel-casino in Las Vegas, he said, it could be on 55 acres next to the Bellagio.

MGM Mirage and Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp. are readying the $1 billion joint venture Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa that will open this summer in Atlantic City.

Murren made his comments at the Las Vegas Flamingo hotel, where the gambling forum was being held through Friday for certified public accountants in the industry. The CPA's were to learn about new compliance and regulatory rules.

Murren said the company was eyeing "potentially exciting opportunities" in Macau and the United Kingdom. Murren said he believed that MGM Mirage could get its best return on investments outside the United States.

Inside the United States, he said, new investment "boils down to where we want to put our money." MGM Mirage considers Nevada, New Jersey and Mississippi good states for gambling business, Murren said.

"You'll find us in very few new states," Murren said, adding his company was looking at possible management opportunities in Indian gambling and "racinos," casinos at horse racing tracks.

Murren also said The Mirage casino's failure to file about 15,000 anti-money laundering reports over an 18-month period beginning in 2001 was a stain on the company's reputation.

"It's the most embarrassing thing that has happened to MGM Mirage," he said, quoting Terry Lanni, MGM Mirage chairman and chief executive officer.

Nevada gambling authorities on Wednesday arrested the former employee who they said was responsible for not filing the reports. Christopher Morishita, 33, was charged with four felony counts of failing to maintain records.

He faces up to 10 years in prison and $50,000 in fines. He was being held Thursday at the Clark County Detention Center on $120,000 bond.

Murren said an internal investigation revealed the reports had been collected, filled out, but not mailed.

"It's not a very difficult job, but a job not done," he said. "They just simply weren't mailed."

He said several employees had lost their jobs over the incident.

The Nevada Gaming Commission will determine whether action should be taken against The Mirage, which could be fined $25,000 for each report it failed to submit.

MGM Mirage owns or operates 19 casino properties in the United States and Australia. It employs about 43,000 people at 15 properties in Nevada, Mississippi and Michigan.