Vegas odds too much for China-themed casino

Las Vegas' first Chinese-themed hotel-casino is for sale, and analysts believe that the facility had trouble finding a niche in the competitive Sin City market.

The Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino filed for bankruptcy in February, about 18 months after it opened. In January it closed its gaming and restaurant operations.

David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, said Lucky Dragon faced a marketing challenge.

"I think that a lot of it comes down to the execution of casino marketing. There is a lot of competition for local gamblers in Las Vegas, and Lucky Dragon had to give players a reason to bypass other options, which was a challenge," he said.

When it first opened, Lucky Dragon executives said the new casino would focus on domestic gamblers made up of Chinese-Americans and Chinese people who lived in or close to Las Vegas, including those in California, which has a huge Asian population.

"Even though Lucky Dragon was Las Vegas' only entirely themed Asian property, most Nevada and California casinos have extensive programs for marketing to Asian-American players. Lucky Dragon was just not able to provide enough of a reason for potential customers to drive past those places to get to theirs," Schwartz said.

Union Gaming analyst John DeCree told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in February that Lucky Dragon "caters to only one customer segment", making it difficult to generate enough gambling revenue to cover costs.

Another Asian-themed resort much bigger than Lucky Dragon, the Resorts World on the North Strip, broke ground in 2017 and is projected to open in 2019 or 2020. A $4 billion project, the property will have more than 3,000 rooms and feature Chinese architecture, including a panda exhibit.

Schwartz doesn't believe that the problems that dragged down Lucky Dragon will bedevil this project.

"This is a project at least an order of magnitude bigger than Lucky Dragon and is being built by a much more established operator (Resorts World Genting). I don't think that Lucky Dragon is a major factor for Resorts World Las Vegas," said Schwartz.

The Journal-Review said about 179 people invested $500,000 each, or $89.5 million total, in the Lucky Dragon project through the federal EB-5 program, an alternative way for immigrant investors to obtain a US visa. With a minimum of $1 million, or $500,000, an EB-5 investor must create a certain number of full-time jobs through the project they are working toward completing. In return, the investor is eligible for permanent US residency.