As announced by the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM), owned by tycoon Stanley Ho, the company will be in charge of remodeling the Hotel Casino Lisboa, the oldest casino in the Asian continent. The project will start in 2009 and continue until 2012, a period in which about 17,500 square meters of land will be covered.

“Since it opened in 1970, the Hotel Casino Lisboa has played an important role in the development of Macao’s economy, the reconstruction projects confirms our promise to promote Macao’s financial prosperity,” Stanley Ho, CEO and Chairman of the Sociedade, explained.

A spokesperson for the STDM informed that the company would soon launch an international architecture contest to select the best architects for the new casino resort. The big international firms are expected to submit their bids, since they already have experience in this kind of projects.

Macao, a former Portuguese colony and current special administrative region of China, has a population of 528,000 people and has become one of the main gambling centers in the world. Nowadays, 28 casinos operate in the island, the first one of which was the MGM Grand Macao, a mega resort that opened in 2007.