UAE To Get Its First Casino In Ras Al Khaimah

The United Arab Emirates is all set to get its first casino at Ras Al Khaimah city. It will be the first casino in the Gulf region, making it a revolutionary step.

As Wynn Resorts intend to make the casino 18,500 square meters in size, it is expected to be bigger than Wynn's property in Las Vegas, Hotelier Middle East reported Thursday.

The project, located on the dormant Dream Island, off the coast of Ras Al Khaimah, will take off shortly and will be completed in 2026, according to Reuters.

The casino will boast a 1,000-room hotel, a spa, and an upscale shopping mall. The RAK Wynn resort is likely to have a 1000-room hotel, a spa, 10 restaurants and lounges, and a shopping mall, among other facilities.

"We certainly don't want to underbuild the casino," Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings said in the group's Q3 2022 earning call, as per the outlet. "The casino component, where at least for some time, we will be operating on our own, which makes it quite exciting is shaping up to be somewhat larger than Wynn Las Vegas, but with numerous pockets of energy and compression."

Earlier, Billings maintained "no further enabling is required" in Ras Al Khaimah to open the casino, adding that it will be "fully licensed to conduct gaming" upon its inauguration, as per Al-Arabiya news.

Currently, Ras Al Khaimah is working on the gaming laws for the casino. The regulations will be based on the gambling laws of the United States and Singapore.

"The project has a very high return opportunity for us we expect. And so, that's really the focus of our design and development efforts at the moment," Billings noted.

The emirate's tourism development ministry set up a new Department of Entertainment and Gaming Regulation with the aim to "consider the social, cultural, and environmental landscape of the emirate and cover licensing, taxation, operational procedures, and consumer safeguards," according to the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA).

"The foremost priority of this new division is to create a robust framework that will ensure responsible gaming at all levels," a statement from RAKTDA said.