Echo Entertainment may kill James Packers bid to create a high roller casino at Barangaroo
- 9th April 2013
(News.com.au)

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THE BATTLE of the casinos is on.

Echo entertainment, owners of the Star, have applied to extend their exclusivity agreement with the NSW government past 2019 - and if they are successful, they will have killed off James Packer’s bid to create a high roller casino at Barangaroo.

Their proposal has moved to the second stage of the government’s unsolicited proposals process, and will be assessed together with Mr Packer’s Crown bid.

The Premier, Barry O’Farrell said today that only one of the competing casino proposals will be approved.

Mr O’Farrell said Echo Entertainment had signalled in February that they would like to apply to extend the exclusivity of their casino license.

"Echo’s proposal foreshadows additional investment in and around The Star to develop a globally competitive integrated resort at Pyrmont, including investment in local transport initiatives,” Mr O’Farrell said.

The dual proposals will be assessed in tandem by former future fund chairman David Murray and retired court of appeal judge Ken Handley, and will be decided by the end of May.

In a statement to the stock market, Echo Entertainment CEO John Redmond said the Star was the best option for increasing tourism in Sydney.

"Only The Star, further enhanced, can have the scale and diversity of offering to deliver the critical mass required to create the ‘Integrated Resort effect’ on tourism”, Mr Redmond said.

Echo Entertainment completed an $850 million revamp to the Star complex in 2011.