{"id":777015171,"date":"2024-05-02T09:24:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T12:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777015171"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:39:12","slug":"melco-to-operate-gaming-and-hotel-rooms-at-city-of-dreams-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-to-operate-gaming-and-hotel-rooms-at-city-of-dreams-sri-lanka","title":{"rendered":"Melco to operate gaming and hotel rooms at City of Dreams Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Melco Resorts & Entertainment has partnered with John Keells Holdings to join the IR project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka.-\u00a0Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited\u00a0<\/strong>has announced a partnership with John Keells Holdings <\/strong>to develop a US$1bn integrated resort (IR) in central Colombo. City of Dreams Sri Lanka<\/strong>, previously dubbed Cinnamon Life Integrated Resort, will be the first IR in Sri Lanka and South Asia. It will have 800 hotel rooms, retail, food and beverage outlets and MICE facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of Sri Lanka has awarded Melco’s wholly-owned local subsidiary a 20-year casino licence. The company will operate the gaming area at City of Dreams Sri Lanka, with an initial investment of approximately US$125m.\u00a0Melco will also manage the top five floors of the hotel under its Nuwa brand, which will represent 113 of the 800 total hotel rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melco and John Keells have agreed on all key commercial arrangements, with the fit-out of the casino\u00a0area\u00a0expected to begin soon. The non-gaming facilities, including the 687-room Cinnamon Life hotel to be managed by John Keells,\u00a0are in the final stages of completion and will begin operations in the third quarter of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casino operations are expected to commence in mid-2025. There is potential for further expansion of the gaming facilities, subject to performance and market conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>Moody\u2019s assigns Ba3 rating to Melco Resorts\u2019 proposed senior notes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawrence Ho<\/strong>, chairman and chief executive officer of Melco, said, \u201cWe are thrilled to be part of this landmark development in Sri Lanka and to be in partnership with John Keells. We believe Sri Lanka has immense potential and this opportunity complements our existing portfolio of properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFurthermore, City of Dreams Sri Lanka is expected to serve as a catalyst for stimulating tourism demand and promoting economic growth in Sri Lanka, drawing inspiration from the successful examples set by similar integrated resorts in other jurisdictions. We will continue to work closely with our esteemed partners and the Sri Lankan Government to ensure the success of this venture, and we expect to make a significant and positive impact on the local community and economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>Sri Lanka updates casino licence fees<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melco Resorts & Entertainment has partnered with John Keells Holdings to join the IR project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Melco Resorts & Entertainment has partnered with John Keells Holdings to develop the US$1bn City of Dreams Sri Lanka integrated resort in Colombo, marking the first IR in South Asia. Melco's local subsidiary secured a 20-year casino licence and will operate the gaming facilities, with an initial US$125m investment, while non-gaming operations are set for Q3 2024 and casino operations for mid-2025. This venture is poised to significantly boost Sri Lanka's tourism and economic growth.","focusai_entities":"Melco Resorts & Entertainment, John Keells Holdings, Government of Sri Lanka, Lawrence Ho, Moody\u2019s","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Colombo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Melco's Capital Allocation","query":"What is Melco's projected return on investment (ROI) for its initial US$125m gaming area capital deployment, and how does this project align with its broader capital allocation strategy across its global portfolio?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact","query":"How does Sri Lanka's specific 20-year casino licensing framework and associated governance structure compare to established iGaming jurisdictions, and what are the long-term implications for regulatory compliance and market stability?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16334],"tags":[18488],"class_list":["post-777015171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-melco-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777015171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777015171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777015171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777015184,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777015171\/revisions\/777015184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777015171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777015171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777015171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}