Casino part of Mall 1B in the United States

According to a plan unveiled to city officials by Mall of America's management partners this week, Mall of America will include a huge casino twice the size, a new hotel, department store, and a concert hall. According to a Triple Five official from Minnesota, Mall of America's management partner, the proposed $1 billion expansion would reach 4 million sf just north of the Mall.

The expansion will include three or four hotels with a total of 1,500 rooms. One hotel will have a family-oriented theme with an igloo room, a train room, and a Hawaiian room. Other features of the expansion: an NHL-sized ice rink, a 14-screen movie theater, a tram that transports customers from a light rail station to the center of the expansion, and an Italian canal with a gondola surrounded by dancing fountains.

"The mall, coupled with world-class gaming, will attract a lot more tourists from all over the world," says Nader Germejian of Triple Five. "We plan to realize our original vision by placing No. 1 tourist destinations in the U.S. over Bloomington and Minnesota."

According to its supporters, The Mall of America is one of the best places to play casinos in the U.S., twice as good as any other place in the Twin Cities. The expansion could make Bloomington and the Twin Cities international convention centers, and it will increase by 50 percent among the 40 million people who visit the mall annually.

But because the expansion depends on whether the mall wins state approval for the casino, it would plunge its owners into an ongoing legislative debate over a state-sanctioned casino. While the proposal is large, the revenue and economic impact it would generate could be appealing to lawmakers who are not anti-gambling, Bloomington and city officials, who are opposed to building a casino in the mall in principle.

Triple Five officials say profits from casinos are necessary for the scheme, as they subsidize other elements of the expansion. Without casinos, developers may demand government subsidies. 슬롯사이트 순위

Shopping mall officials say construction could begin within this year and open by the end of 2007. Mall of America is the largest retail and entertainment complex in the U.S., with a size of 4.2 million sf.