Twelve bid for Great Barrier Reef resorts

There have been twelve official bids for developing casino resorts in Queensland Australia that has the Great Barrier Reef as a backdrop to lure customers and tourists for the state to become bigger than Singapore.

Indeed such names on the bidding list are James Packer of Crown Resorts, Billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, Echo Entertainment and Hong Kong billionaire investor Tony Fung’s Aquis Resorts are all hoping to get into the development that could generate revenues of over $5 billion a year.

Queensland deputy premier Jeff Seeney confirmed the names of the bidders in a statement to the press and with a shoreline longer than India with the Great Barrier Reef the Premier is hoping for millions in tax dollars each year once the casino resorts are built and running.

The government wants “world-class resorts that will revitalise the tourism and construction sectors of the economy,” Seeney said in the statement. They’ll be “draw cards for both international and domestic visitors and provide employment for thousands of Queenslanders,” he said.

The department of state development will consider the bids and prepare a final short-list by the middle of 2014, Seeney said, with a decision on the licenses expected a year later.