Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited is a developer, owner and operator of

integrated resort A casino hotel is an establishment consisting of a casino with temporary lodging provided in an on-premises hotel. Customers receive the benefits of both gambling facilities and lodging. Since the casino and hotel are located on the same premis ...

s with entertainment and

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

gaming facilities in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Based in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, the company is listed on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. Originally known as Melco Crown Entertainment (Melco Crown or MPEL), Melco Resorts was founded in 2004 as a joint venture between Melco International and Crown Limited. Melco Crown became Melco Resorts & Entertainment in May 2017 and currently operates as a subsidiary of Melco International. Melco Resorts owns a number of integrated casino resorts, having launched Altira Macau in 2007, City of Dreams Macau in 2009, City of Dreams Manila in 2015, Studio City Macau in 2015, City of Dreams Mediterranean in 2021, the largest casino-resort in Europe and City of Dreams Sri Lanka in 2024. It also operates the Mocha Clubs

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

brand.

History

Founding as Melco Crown Entertainment (2004-2015)

In 2004, Melco International Development Limited partnered with James Packer's Australian casino company Crown Limited, creating the joint venture Melco Crown Entertainment Limited to invest in gaming ventures in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. Melco International's chief executive, Lawrence Ho, was appointed CEO and executive director of Melco Crown Entertainment in December 2004, with both Ho and Packer appointed co-chairmen. In March 2006, Melco Crown spent US$900 million to purchase the last of

's six gaming licenses from

Wynn Resorts Wynn Resorts, Limited is an American publicly traded corporation based in Paradise, Nevada, that is a developer and operator of high-end hotels and casinos. It was founded in 2002 by former Mirage Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and is now r ...

. The license allowed Melco Crown to "operate an unlimited number of casinos, tables and machines in Macau until June 2022," and the company began developing its first casino. Melco Crown listed on the

in December 2006 and launched Altira Macau in July 2007, which was built for $1.45 billion. Crown Limited's interest in Melco Crown was around 36% by June 2009, and in that year Melco Crown opened its flagship $2.4 billion casino resort City of Dreams Macau in

Cotai Cotai ( zh, t=路氹城, cy=Louhtáhm Sìhng; ) is a piece of land reclamation, reclaimed land on the top of the Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau that has connected two independent islands since 2005. The name, which is ...

. Melco Crown listed its shares on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

at the end of 2011. Also in 2011, Melco Crown acquired a 60% interest in Studio City Macau, a large-scale integrated resort project in

.About Crown: Summary of key businesses
at Crown Ltd official websiteChan, Kelvi

''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'', 6 July 2012, at Yahoo! Finance Designed with a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

theme, the casino resort opened in October 2015 with a cost $3.2 billion. In its first project outside of Macau, in 2012 Melco Crown began partnering with SM Investments on the $1 billion casino resort City of Dreams Manila in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, in which Melco Crown was expected to invest up to $580 million. The casino resort opened in 2015.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (2016-2020)

Melco International became the majority shareholder of Melco Crown in May 2016. Crown Limited subsequently "suffered debts from ill-timed investments," according to the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

'', giving Melco International "the chance to buy up Packer’s shares." After developing four integrated resorts together, Melco International ended its partnership with Crown Resorts in May 2017 and purchased stake in Crown for $1.16 billion, with Melco Crown rebranded as Melco Resorts & Entertainment. Ho officially became COO, CEO, and chairman of Melco Resorts in April 2017, overseeing three resorts in Macau, eight Mocha Clubs, the resort in the Philippines, and the development in Cyprus. Melco's Mocha Clubs, opened in 2003 by Melco International in Macau, earlier had helped introduce "cafe-style slot-machine parlors" to Macau. Melco Resorts announced in December 2017 that its Crown Towers hotels at City of Dreams in Macau and Manila would be rebranded as Nüwa. In June 2018, Melco Resorts & Entertainment opened Morpheus, a $1.1 billion hotel tower designed by Zaha Hadid for City of Dreams Macau. In July 2018, Melco Resorts opened the first

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

stadium in Macau at Studio City.Casino company Melco envisions esports as big draw for Japan resort
/ref> In the same year, Melco Resorts also won a license to build the largest casino-resort in Europe, securing a 30-year license for an integrated resort in

Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

with 15 years of exclusivity. Melco Resorts purchased a controlling stake in the Cyprus project in June 2019. Also that year, Melco Resorts announced that it was purchasing a stake in Crown Resorts from James Packer, with further stake increases to take place as it received regulatory approval. Melco Resorts sold the entirety of its stake in Crown Resorts to Blackstone Group Inc. in May 2020. After new legislation legalized casinos in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in 2018, three integrated resort licenses were made available to bidders. new legislation legalized casinos in Japan in 2018, Melco Resorts submitted preliminary documents to the

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

government to bid there for an integrated resortthestandard.com
/ref> and announced it would be willing to invest as much as $10 billion in such a project.nikkei.com
/ref> Describing project features such as an esports stadium, Melco Resorts also asserted that the project would bring tens of thousands of foreign workers to Japan. In August 2019,

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

became the second Japanese city besides Osaka to begin accepting bids, announcing its candidate site as Yamashita Pier. Adopting a "Yokohama-First" policy and stating that the location had become their "main focus," Melco Resorts dropped its bid in Osaka in September 2019 and began pitching "the world's biggest integrated resort" in

. Also in September 2019, Melco Resorts began constructing an office in Yokohama. In August 2019, Melco Resorts became the official sponsor of

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

in Japan, while also sponsoring its sister club Yokohama F. Marinos.Man City and Yokohama combine for Melco partnership
/ref> Melco Resorts announced that it has appointed tennis player

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA for 25 weeks, the first Asian player to hold the ...

to serve as its brand ambassador in October 2019, and that she was also director of sports for Melco's Japanese resorts. On October 29, Melco Resorts announced that it has invested $248 million in a fund to back hospitality projects in Japan. Independent of the integrated resort bid in Yokohama, The Melco Creative Exchange Fund was created specifically for non-gaming hotel projects.Melco signs Naomi Osaka as brand ambassador
/ref>

Properties

* Studio City Macau (60% ownership) * City of Dreams * City of Dreams Manila * Altira Macau * Morpheus Macau * City of Dreams Mediterranean *Mocha Clubs * City of Dreams Sri Lanka

References

External links