One of the most surefire ways to guarantee bad luck is to call yourself lucky. The developers of the Lucky Dragon in Las Vegas, Nevada, hadn’t learned that lesson, apparently, and the Asian-centered casino was doomed from the start. Almost two years after opening, the hotel and casino venue are officially dead and will be on the auction block at the end of October.
Construction of the Lucky Dragon, which was being developed by the Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino, LLC, finished in December 2016. It was completely themed around the Asian culture in an effort to attract Asian gamblers, a market segment that was, according to the company, underrepresented in Las Vegas.
Not too long after opening, the casino ran into financial problems. It asked for a bailout from Nevada, but the request was denied. It then turned to additional investors to try and find some of the millions in funding it needed to cover expenses. Despite the attempts, the venue never truly moved into the black.
This past February, the casino filed for bankruptcy with less than a week to spare before it faced foreclosure. Only a month prior, company officials asserted that they were preparing to close the casino “temporarily” so it could be reorganized. However, it ultimately shuttered its doors and began looking for a potential suitor. The last chance for someone to have snapped it up was at the end of September, and, without receiving a single bid, the Lucky Dragon remains unlucky.
Lucky Dragon was built with a price tag of $160 million. A large portion of the funds came from Asian investors, many of whom gave everything they had to the casino in exchange for permanent U.S. residency. The deal was part of an immigrant visa program that awarded residency to certain individuals in exchange for large financial investments. With the casino’s future up in smoke, those investors—some of whom had invested over $500,000—might be out their money and their American dream.
The location of the bankrupt venue is close to where the Genting group out of Malaysia is said to be considering a different Asian-based casino. Genting’s Resorts World Las Vegas is designed to be a Chinese-themed resort and could be added to the Las Vegas landscape as early as 2020.
