Caesars Entertainment Pulling Out Of Macau

LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Caesars Entertainment Corp. is giving up on their dreams of opening a casino in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the casino giant is looking for a buyer for the golf course they acquired for $578 million in 2007.

They had hoped to use the property as a site to develop a gaming resort but the project has been stalled by the Macau government's refusal to grant new gaming licenses. The company took a $101 million write-down on the 175-acre property during the last fiscal quarter.

"When you have that much capital devoted to an asset that's not delivering its potential, you need to consider other options," Steven Tight, the company's president of international development told the Wall Street Journal.

Caesars has been looking for ways to diversify their revenue in the face of slumping gaming revenue in U.S. markets such as Atlantic City. The company is also burdened with more than $22 billion in debt, much of which was obtained in a private equity buyout of the company in 2007.

"In the long term the U.S. gaming markets are just not rebounding to the degree they need them to to fix the capital structure," Peggy Holloway, an analyst at Moody's told the WSJ. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers