The Five Most Expensive Casinos Ever Built

Casino owners spend their careers convincing other people to risk enormous sums of money. Every once in a while, however, they place a bet so large that even the highest roller at the baccarat tables would probably flinch.

Consider Marina Bay Sands.

Three 55-story hotel towers rise above Singapore's waterfront, connected at the top by a 1,100-foot platform that resembles a ship resting in the sky. Nearly 650 feet above the ground, guests swim in an infinity pool that appears to spill directly over the edge of the city.

Sheldon Adelson spent approximately $5.6 billion bringing the resort to life. For years, Marina Bay Sands was widely described as the most expensive standalone casino ever constructed.

But it was not the most expensive casino development in history.

That distinction belongs to an even larger project in Las Vegas—one that cost nearly $3 billion more, almost collapsed during the financial crisis and included an entire hotel tower that had to be demolished before it ever welcomed a guest.

Before getting to the rankings, one clarification is important. The world's most expensive casinos are rarely just casinos. They are integrated resorts containing thousands of hotel rooms, shopping malls, restaurants, convention centers, theaters, theme parks, residences, museums and elaborate tourist attractions.

The casino floor may be the economic engine, but it often represents only a small portion of the total construction cost.

The following list ranks completed, casino-anchored developments by their reported nominal cost at the time they were built. It does not adjust for inflation, and it does not combine neighboring resorts that were constructed separately.

#5: Resorts World Las Vegas – $4.3 Billion

Resorts World Las Vegas opened in June 2021 on a site that had already consumed hundreds of millions of dollars and more than a decade of failed development plans.

The property was once home to the Stardust, one of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas history. Boyd Gaming closed the Stardust in 2006, demolished it the following year and began constructing an ambitious replacement called Echelon Place.

Echelon was supposed to include several hotels, a casino, convention facilities, restaurants and retail space. Construction began in 2007, but the financial crisis brought the project to a halt the following year.

For years, the unfinished site remained a collection of concrete foundations and exposed steel on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip.

Malaysia's Genting Group purchased the 88-acre property from Boyd for $350 million in 2013. Genting initially envisioned an elaborate Asian-themed resort filled with pagodas, gardens and water features. The design was repeatedly revised before construction began in earnest.

When Resorts World finally opened, its completed cost had reached $4.3 billion, making it the most expensive individual resort ever constructed in Las Vegas.

The property contains more than 3,500 rooms divided among three Hilton-affiliated hotels: Las Vegas Hilton, Conrad Las Vegas and Crockfords Las Vegas. It also features a 117,000-square-foot casino, dozens of restaurants and bars, a 5,000-seat theater, a five-acre pool complex and an enormous exterior video screen wrapped around the resort's curved hotel tower.

Resorts World became the first major newly constructed casino resort to open on the Strip in more than a decade. Remarkably, Genting completed the final phase of construction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

#4: Resorts World Sentosa – Approximately $4.7 Billion

More than a decade before Resorts World Las Vegas opened, Genting made an even larger investment in Singapore.

Singapore had prohibited casinos for decades before changing course in 2005. Even then, the government did not want developers constructing ordinary gambling halls. Instead, it authorized two enormous "integrated resorts" that would surround their casinos with hotels, restaurants, entertainment and tourist attractions.

Genting won the right to develop one of those properties on Sentosa Island.

Resorts World Sentosa cost S$6.59 billion, equal to approximately $4.7 billion at exchange rates around the time it opened. Currency fluctuations make the precise U.S. dollar amount difficult to pin down, but the development was clearly one of the most expensive resort projects ever completed.

And Genting built far more than a casino.

The 49-hectare complex included Universal Studios Singapore, six hotels, restaurants, retail stores, a convention center, a theater, a luxury spa and a major marine-life attraction that eventually became home to one of the world's largest aquariums.

The casino opened on February 14, 2010, shortly after the first hotels began accepting guests. Additional attractions opened in phases over the following years.

Much of the original development was constructed in less than three years.

Resorts World Sentosa perfectly illustrates why casino construction costs can be misleading. Genting did not spend nearly $5 billion on blackjack tables and slot machines. It built an entire tourism destination, with the casino providing the financial engine behind a theme park, aquarium, collection of hotels and entertainment complex.

#3: Grand Lisboa Palace – Approximately $5 Billion

Macau's casino boom transformed a former Portuguese colony into the world's largest gambling market.

As gaming revenue surged during the 2000s, casino operators spent billions turning the reclaimed land of the Cotai district into a Chinese version of the Las Vegas Strip. Fortunes were created for casino magnates such as Lui Che Woo, whose Galaxy Entertainment developed some of Cotai's largest resorts.

SJM Holdings, the casino company founded by longtime Macau gambling king Stanley Ho, responded by building Grand Lisboa Palace.

The project's estimated development cost eventually reached HK$39 billion, equal to approximately $5 billion. The resort began opening in phases in July 2021 following years of construction delays.

Grand Lisboa Palace contains nearly 1,900 rooms spread across three separate hotels: Grand Lisboa Palace Macau, Palazzo Versace Macau and "THE KARL LAGERFELD."

The Karl Lagerfeld hotel is perhaps the project's most unusual component. Before his death, Karl Lagerfeld personally selected or conceived many of the tower's furnishings, patterns and decorative elements. The 271-room property has been promoted as the world's only hotel tower designed entirely by the legendary fashion designer.

The larger resort also contains casino space, luxury shopping, conference facilities, restaurants, gardens and entertainment attractions. Its architecture blends European influences with traditional Chinese decorative elements, reflecting Macau's colonial history.

Grand Lisboa Palace represented SJM's attempt to catch up with rival companies that had already constructed enormous resorts in Cotai, including Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts and Galaxy Entertainment.

By the time it opened, SJM had spent approximately $5 billion securing its place in one of the most competitive casino markets on Earth.

#2: Marina Bay Sands – $5.6 Billion

When Singapore invited developers to compete for the right to construct an integrated resort on Marina Bay, Sheldon Adelson proposed something far more dramatic than a traditional hotel and casino.

His company, Las Vegas Sands, hired architect Moshe Safdie to design three enormous hotel towers topped by a single structure known as the Sands SkyPark. After Adelson's death in 2021, control of the family's casino fortune largely passed to his widow, Miriam Adelson.

The result became one of the most recognizable buildings in the world.

Marina Bay Sands opened in phases beginning in 2010 at a cost of approximately $5.6 billion. The original development contained more than 2,500 hotel rooms, a casino, a convention center, theaters, luxury stores, restaurants, a museum and a rooftop park overlooking Singapore.

The SkyPark was an engineering challenge all by itself. The 1,100-foot structure stretches across the tops of the three towers and extends beyond one tower in an enormous cantilever. It contains gardens, restaurants, observation areas and the resort's famous infinity pool.

The pool is positioned nearly 650 feet above the ground, allowing swimmers to look out over the city while appearing to float above the edge of the building.

Marina Bay Sands was an extraordinary gamble for Adelson. Singapore had only recently legalized casino gaming, and the resort opened while the global economy was still recovering from the financial crisis.

Adelson nevertheless predicted that the project could earn back its investment in roughly five years.

The bet paid off. Marina Bay Sands became the flagship property of Las Vegas Sands and one of Singapore's defining landmarks. Its three towers and rooftop platform became instantly recognizable around the world.

The resort was so closely associated with Adelson that former President George W. Bush painted a picture of Marina Bay Sands and presented it to the casino billionaire during a Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas.

For years, Marina Bay Sands was described as the most expensive standalone casino resort ever built.

Technically, it may still hold that title. The only project that cost more was not a single resort. It was an attempt to build an entire city.

#1: CityCenter – $8.5 Billion

The most expensive casino development ever completed began with a simple but audacious idea:

Build a city inside Las Vegas.

MGM Mirage announced CityCenter in 2004 as a roughly $5 billion mixed-use development on 67 acres between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo resorts.

At the time, MGM was controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, the legendary dealmaker who had already built three of the largest hotels in Las Vegas history. CityCenter was intended to be the next evolution of the casino mega-resort—an entire urban neighborhood built from scratch on the Strip.

The development grew more elaborate as planning continued. MGM added hotels, condominium towers, restaurants, shops, public artwork and a transportation system. Construction costs soared alongside the Las Vegas real estate market.

By the time CityCenter opened in late 2009, its reported cost had reached approximately $8.5 billion.

The original development included Aria Resort & Casino, Vdara Hotel & Spa, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, the Veer residential towers and the Shops at Crystals. An automated tram connected the development with neighboring MGM properties.

Aria contained approximately 4,000 hotel rooms and CityCenter's only casino.

That distinction is why Marina Bay Sands is generally described as the most expensive standalone casino resort. CityCenter cost significantly more, but its $8.5 billion budget covered an entire master-planned campus containing several hotels, condominiums, retail space and public infrastructure.

CityCenter was developed through a partnership between MGM Mirage and Dubai World, the investment arm of the Dubai government.

The timing could hardly have been worse.

Construction began near the peak of the Las Vegas real estate boom. Then the housing market collapsed, credit markets froze and the global financial crisis devastated Nevada.

Condominium buyers attempted to walk away from their contracts. MGM's stock price collapsed. Dubai World sued MGM and refused to contribute its portion of a crucial construction payment.

For a time, there were serious questions about whether CityCenter would be finished at all. The development came dangerously close to default, and MGM's financial condition became so precarious that the project threatened the survival of the company itself.

MGM made an emergency payment to keep construction moving while the partners negotiated with their lenders. Eventually, a financing agreement allowed the project to avoid bankruptcy and proceed toward completion.

Vdara opened on December 1, 2009. The Mandarin Oriental and Crystals followed, and Aria officially opened on December 16.

One major component never opened.

The Harmon was planned as a luxury hotel and condominium tower near the entrance to CityCenter. During construction, inspectors discovered serious structural defects involving improperly installed reinforcing steel.

The tower was reduced in height, abandoned and eventually dismantled one floor at a time. An entire high-rise included in the world's most expensive casino development was demolished without ever accommodating a single guest.

CityCenter survived, and MGM later bought out Dubai World's ownership interest. The CityCenter name has gradually disappeared, with MGM now referring to the remaining properties as the Aria Campus.

Even so, the project's $8.5 billion cost remains difficult to comprehend.

CityCenter was one of the largest privately financed developments ever attempted in the United States. It was conceived during a real estate boom, built during a financial collapse and opened at a moment when Las Vegas was struggling through one of the worst downturns in its history.

The Casinos That Just Missed the List

Wynn Palace in Macau narrowly missed the top five.

Wynn Resorts placed the property's total project budget at approximately $4.2 billion, including construction, land, capitalized interest, financing fees and pre-opening expenses.

The resort opened in 2016 with more than 1,700 rooms, a large casino, luxury stores and an eight-acre performance lake crossed by aerial gondolas. It was one of the most ambitious developments created by Steve Wynn, the casino mogul who helped transform Las Vegas from a gambling destination into a luxury-resort capital.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas reportedly cost approximately $3.9 billion. Its original developer defaulted during construction, leaving Deutsche Bank to take control of the unfinished property and spend billions completing it.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened in 2023 at a reported cost of $3.7 billion following one of the longest development sagas in Strip history. Construction began in 2007, stopped after the project entered bankruptcy and did not resume in earnest until more than a decade later.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn acquired the failed Fontainebleau project out of bankruptcy for approximately $150 million in 2010. He later sold the unfinished property for roughly four times that amount without ever completing the resort himself.

The Casino Is the Smallest Part of the Story

It is easy to imagine that the gambling floor is the most expensive component of a casino resort. In reality, slot machines, card tables and gaming equipment represent only a fraction of the total cost.

The billions are consumed by hotel towers, theaters, shopping malls, restaurants, convention centers, theme parks, aquariums, artificial lakes, rooftop parks and years of interest charged on enormous construction loans.

The world's most expensive casinos are not really casinos at all.

They are privately built cities designed around one exceptionally profitable room.