MGM Resorts Plans Micro Sphere in Dubai

Posted on: September 19, 2024, 07:49h. 

Last updated on: September 19, 2024, 07:53h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

MGM Resorts on Thursday shared the latest on The Island, the 1,500-room resort it’s currently building in Dubai. Located on the 26-acre Bluewaters Island, it will feature separate MGM, Bellagio and Aria hotel towers, and a spherical events venue at its center.

MGM’s “sphere” is that tiny silver thing in the center of this latest rendering of The Island, which it is currently constructing in Dubai. (Image: skift.com)

MGM Resorts CEO and president Bill Hornbuckle told an audience at the Skift Global Forum travel convention in New York City that MGM’s Dubai sphere would be “not as big as the sphere in Las Vegas by any stretch but equally compelling.”

Size Matters

Even calling the Dubai Sphere “not as big … by any stretch” is a stretch, however.

“It has 300 seats with a mini showroom and the visual things you’d obviously do inside a sphere,” Hornbuckle told the audience gathered at the New York Marriott Marquis.

That’s 60 times smaller than the Las Vegas Sphere. And there are no plans to lift it off its foundation and plummet it back down as an amusement-park thrill ride.

Bill Hornbuckle (MGM Resorts)

Instead, Hornbuckle said his company’s sphere would feature an experience “that walks through the history of Dubai,” explaining that “in 1985 it was desert and literally 35 years later, it’s this megatropolis with 2 million people.”

Hornbuckle told the Skift attendees that MGM would build its sphere independently, clarifying that it would have nothing to do with the Las Vegas Sphere, or any other Spheres that James Dolan and his Sphere Entertainment had planned to build around the world before the world said “no, thanks.”

However, Hornbuckle added that MGM would be open to taking on a partner at a later date. And, last year, Dolan told Variety that he’d be open to having “smaller Spheres for smaller markets.”

Hmm…

Still No Gaming

An aerial rendering of MGM’s The Island resort. (Image: MGM Resorts)

After the MGM project was approved by the UAE’S ruler in March 2017, progress slowed considerably. It was not until earlier this year, in fact, that a construction contract was even awarded.

However, Hornbuckle told the crowd that the project is back on track, though he did not provide an opening date and said there are no plans to include the casino that MGM had hoped to build.

Hornbuckle held out hope, though.

“Once you get there and gaming is socially accepted — not for Emiratis by the way — but 80-90% of the [UAE] population are non-Emirati. India is a massive market, the rest of the Middle East could be massive, China will continue to come to Dubai, so we’re excited by what it presents and we hope to be there,” he told the crowd.

The Middle East has long frowned on gambling, which is forbidden under Islamic law. However, competition for tourism from Saudi Arabia and Qatar has softened official attitudes. Last September, the UAE formed the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority to create and oversee a framework for casino gambling.

Hornbuckle told the convention that The Island calls for “several podiums which in fact, [is where] Dubai wants gaming,” in case UAE leaders decide to allow it.

MGM is developing the project with Wasl Hospitality and Leisure, a Dubai-based hotel owner and developer with ties to UAE leaders.

MGM’s history with Dubai goes back to 2007, when a Dubai World subsidiary purchased a 50% stake in CityCenter to help MGM absorb its $8 billion cost. In 2021, MGM said it bought back Infinity World’s half stake for $2.125 billion.

Dubai-Off

A rendering of Wynn’s Al Marjan Island resort in Dubai, which has also broken ground. (Image: Wynn Resorts)

Dubai is not a market without competition for MGM.

Wynn Resorts has also broken ground on a $4 billion resort on Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah, about 30 miles north of Dubai in the Persian Gulf.

It’s scheduled to open in early 2027 and, should gaming come to Dubai, the odds favor it to include the region’s first licensed casino.

Caesars Entertainment opened the non-gaming Caesars Palace Bluewaters Dubai and The Residences at Caesars Palace Bluewaters Dubai in late 2018, in partnership with Dubai Holding. However, the Las Vegas gaming giant got out of the Dubai business when Singapore-based Banyan Tree Hotels replaced it as the properties’ operator in November 2023.