MGM MIRAGE may build new LV, AC casino

MGM MIRAGE wants to build a hotel-casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City 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. The gambling forum was being held through today for Certified Public Accountants in the industry. The CPAs were to learn about new compliance and regulatory rules.

Murren also 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" in which casinos are included at horse racing tracks.

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.