Recruiting in China

Entertainment complex with bunnies, gambling slated for debut in 2009

HONG KONG–Playboy Enterprises Inc., publisher of the most widely read men's magazine, plans to open a 40,000-square-foot entertainment complex, including gambling facilities and bunny-suited waitresses, in Macau, located on the southeast coast of China.

Playboy Mansion Macao, to be completed in 2009, will include dining, entertainment and retail shops, company chair and chief executive Christie Hefner said in an interview in Hong Kong. It will be part of the Macao Studio City complex, and the gambling operations will be run by casino operator Melco International Development Co., Hefner said in another interview, in Macau.

Billionaire Stanley Ho's gaming monopoly ended in 2002 when the government awarded licences to five other operators in the city, the only place in China where casinos are legal.

By this year's first quarter, 25 casinos were operating in the 26 square-kilometre territory, creating concern the industry may be starting to get crowded.

"I am less bullish about the ability of demand to soak up the capacity that's coming on line for both retail and hotels," said Peter Drolet, a Hong Kong-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian Pte.

Macao Studio City, a $2 billion (U.S.) joint venture between Hong Kong-listed ESun Holdings Ltd. and partners including Silver Point Capital LLC, is next to the Lotus Bridge, which will link Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. It will include a film studio, a million-square-foot shopping mall and gaming and convention facilities.

"Macau has vast growing power as a travel destination, with the number of visitors expected to double between 2006 and 2011," said Hefner, daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

"We will look for the most beautiful, personable women from Asia and the United States" to possibly hire as Playboy bunnies, Hefner said.

She said it was "too early" to disclose how much will be invested in Playboy Mansion Macao and how much gaming will contribute to its revenue. Hefner also didn't say how much Playboy will pay Melco to run the project's gaming operations.

Macau's economy grew 16.6 per cent last year, compared with 6.9 per cent in 2005 and 28.4 per cent in 2004, the year the city's first foreign-operated casino began operating.

Macau, with a population of 500,000, is the closest location for the 1.3 billion people in China to gamble legally in casinos.

Gambling revenue in the former Portuguese colony surged 22 per cent to $6.95 billion last year, surpassing the Las Vegas Strip.

Playboy is the world's best selling men's monthly magazine with its U.S. paid circulation of 3 million.