Kerkorian gambles dollars 1bn on a grand design in the desert: Despite fierce competition in Las Vegas and across the US, the world's biggest casino complex will open on Saturday. Phil Reeves reports

LAS VEGAS is well used to gambling for high stakes, but on Saturday the desert city will be the scene of a billion-dollar bet when the US entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian unveils his pet project: the MGM Grand, the world's largest hotel and casino.

The huge emerald-green complex is the latest monument to America's burgeoning gaming industry. It has 5,005 rooms, 30 storeys, 3,500 slot machines, four casinos, and a giant gold-coloured lion guarding the entrance - between whose paws the punters will flow by the thousands.

Or so Mr Kerkorian hopes. For MGM Grand Inc, whose board includes the former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig and the ex- Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca, has embarked on the dollars 1bn enterprise in the hope that Las Vegas's popularity will continue to grow, despite the explosion of gambling elsewhere in the US.

Competition on the Las Vegas Strip, which has recently looked more like a building site than an international gaming mecca, is tough enough as it is. In the past two months, two other huge casino resorts have opened: the dollars 430m Treasure Island (operated by the multi- millionaire Steve Wynn), and the Luxor, a 30-storey Egyptian-style pyramid that cost Circus Circus Enterprises around dollars 375m. Between them, they have added nearly 5,500 rooms to the 81,000 already available in the city. And at least three more casinos are planned in the next few years.

Meanwhile, other US states are relaxing their gambling laws. According to Professor Nelson Rose, a specialist on US gaming, 36 US states now have lotteries; casino gambling is legal in 20 states, and takes in about the same number of wagers as Las Vegas. At the same time, growing numbers of Indian tribes, which are not generally answerable to state government restrictions, are also entering the industry.

This rapid increase in outside competition has led Las Vegas, which last year had a record-breaking 22 million visitors, to try to scrap its Sin City image and promote itself as a centre for family entertainment. The new mega-resorts offer a multitude of interactive high-tech children's games; the new MGM Grand has a 33-acre theme park. 'The smarter Las Vegas operators are cottoning on to the fact that they have to offer something more,' says Professor Rose. 'They realise that many people can otherwise simply go to a casino in their home town.'

The MGM Grand marks the third time that Mr Kerkorian has laid claim to the largest place in town. In 1969, he opened the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton). Four years later he opened the first MGM Grand, which he sold to Bally's after a devastating fire in which 85 people died.

While the resort's opening is certain to be presented as a triumph for Mr Kerkorian, some are less than complimentary about his achievements. At 76, he is - according to Forbes - among the richest men in the US with an estimated fortune of dollars 3.1bn. He recently made a paper profit of around dollars 1.5bn by buying into Chrysler, America's number three car maker in which he now has a 9.2 per cent stake.

But in Hollywood some still bitterly remember his forced buyout of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, which he proceeded to strip of some of its greatest prizes. This included selling 3,500 film classics, including Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz, to Ted Turner, the cable TV mogul.

MGM was then sold in 1990 to the Italian businessman Giancarlo Parretti, but was later seized by the French bank Credit Lyonnais because of defaulted loan repayments. Lawyers for Credit Lyonnais will not be drinking champagne in Las Vegas on Saturday: they are still fighting Mr Kerkorian in court over the Parretti sale.

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