MGM Sets Date for Dubai Resort

Skift

05-05-2025

MGM has been trying to enter the UAE since 2006, but something has always gotten in the way. This time seems different.
MGM Resorts CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle said the company's Dubai project will finally be ready in the third quarter of 2027. If the timeline holds, it will mark the end of a 20-year effort to establish a foothold in the UAE.
'That building [the MGM in Dubai] is due to complete third quarter of '27. We are literally up on the fifth floor of the MGM Tower as we speak,' Hornbuckle told investors during the company's first-quarter earnings call on April 30.
The development is known as 'The Island' and the plan includes three MGM brands — Aria, MGM, and Bellagio — combined into a 1,400-room beachfront resort. A 'Dubai Sphere' is also part of the plan.
The project was originally announced in 2017 by Dubai's ruler, and has moved slowly. And MGM's efforts to enter the UAE date back to 2006 when MGM announced a new partnership with Abu Dhabi government developer Mubadala to explore opportunities.
A render of MGM's 'The Island' project in Dubai
A 20-Year History
In 2007, MGM and Mubadala announced plans for a $3 billion non-gaming resort in Abu Dhabi with a projected 2012 opening. In 2011, Abu Dhabi officials said the project was still 'under review' and it has not been mentioned publicly since by either party.
Also in 2007, Dubai World, the emirate's state-owned investment company, acquired a 9.5% stake in MGM Resorts (then MGM Mirage) and formed a joint venture aimed at building the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex in Las Vegas, with Dubai World holding a 50% stake through its subsidiary Infinity World Development Corp. The JV did not include plans to build projects in the UAE.
In 2009, MGM announced its own project in Dubai, with plans for a 250-room Bellagio, a 350-room MGM Grand, and a Skylofts hotel as part of the Pearl Dubai development near Palm Jumeirah. The project never took off. The land remained largely undeveloped, and in 2023, the Dubai government repossessed the site and demolished all partially built structures. The land remains vacant, with no announced plans for reuse.
MGM bought out Dubai World's stake in their joint venture in 2021 for $2.1 billion, and later sold parts of the real estate portfolio to Blackstone in a $3.8 billion deal.
The New Gaming Landscape
The 2027 target date for The Island coincides with a broader shift in the UAE's stance on gaming. Wynn Resorts is on track to open its integrated resort with a casino in Ras Al Khaimah — about an hour from Dubai — in early 2027. Wynn already holds a gaming license and is positioning the property to attract customers from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Asked about MGM's own efforts to secure a license, Hornbuckle told investors that the decision rests entirely with local leadership.
'It's completely in their hands,' he said on the earnings call, referring to the UAE's seven sheikhs. 'This is just like the [United] States. It's in the province of any one of the individual rulers to determine whether they want gaming or not. They haven't said yes, they haven't said no.'
The UAE established its federal gaming regulator — the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) — in 2023.
In September 2024, Hornbuckle confirmed that MGM had submitted an application for a gaming license in Abu Dhabi. In November, the GCGRA stated it was in no rush to expand the casino sector beyond Wynn's project, signaling that the company may hold a monopoly for several years.
CBRE estimates the gross addressable market of casinos in the UAE at upwards of $8.5 billion. This would suggest the UAE casino market would be similar in size to the Las Vegas Strip and 50%-70% larger than Singapore's current casino industry.
Why This Time Might Be Different
Despite the delays, several developments suggest that MGM's Dubai resort may finally cross the finish line.
In late 2023, Wasl Asset Management — the local developer backing the project — awarded a $1.2 billion construction contract to China State Construction Engineering Corporation to build The Island.
The GCGRA is chaired by Jim Murren, former chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts and Hornbuckle's former boss. The GCGRA board also includes William W. Grounds, the former president and COO of Infinity World Development Corp. Grounds was also on MGM's board when Murren was CEO.
Hornbuckle said on the call that he and a team had just met with the Dubai prince. "[Our] mission [when in Dubai] was to see the prince and to update him on our project, tell him the opportunity that we thought it could bring, not only in the context of a fully integrated resort like we're building MGM, Aria, Bellagio, but the potential gaming could bring to not only UAE, but Dubai specifically and the whole notion of entertainment and the kind of unique things that we could bring to the city."