'Casino King' James Packer aims to build world's best hotel on Sydney Harbour

Melbourne, Aug 2 (ANI): Crown Casino chief James Packer has expressed his desire to build the 'world's best hotel' on Sydney Harbour after winning exclusive rights from Lend Lease to develop a luxury hotel on the landmark Barangaroo development.

"Sydney deserves one of the world's great hotels on its magnificent harbour. My desire is for Crown to build the best hotel in the world at Barangaroo. Crown's record demonstrates we can deliver a centrepiece that will draw millions of tourists," the Herald Sun quoted Packer, as saying.

Lend Lease announced Packer's Melbourne-based casino group had clinched the deal, which comes less than 24 hours after Crown also outlined its plans for a 500 million dollar hotel on its Burswood casino site in Perth .

The latest deal takes Crown a small step further to building a nationwide resort-casino network to further attract high rollers away from competing casinos in Singapore.

"A Crown integrated resort at Barangaroo would boost the economy, create thousands of new jobs, contribute significant tax revenues to the State Government and enhance the overall attractiveness of Sydney as a first class international tourist destination," Packer said.

Packer, in an official company statement, said that Crown was considering its options on incorporating a VIP-only gaming facility in the hotel resort, which was necessary to provide the commercial underpinning for any such six-star development. (ANI)