Wynn Al Marjan Island timeline: licence, construction and September 2027 opening
Wynn Al Marjan Island, the resort casino under construction in Ras Al Khaimah, now targets a September 2027 opening, later than the “early 2027” guidance the project carried through most of 2025. The project holds the first commercial gaming licence issued in the UAE, and its progress marks the country’s entry into land-based casino gaming.
The regulator: GCGRA
The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) is the UAE’s federal gaming regulator, set up in 2023 to license and oversee commercial gaming nationwide. The framework runs on two tiers: the GCGRA licenses operators and vendors at the federal level, while individual emirates, in this case Ras Al Khaimah, host and permit the physical facilities under local oversight.
Vendor and supplier approvals sit under the same authority. Gaming devices and software need certification through GLI (Gaming Standards Association) or BMM against 17 GLI standards covering security, iGaming systems and cashless payments before deployment. The GCGRA also requires onshore data residency with regulator access, and AML and KYC checks tied to Emirates ID verification.
The GCGRA’s remit extends beyond Wynn Al Marjan Island. In December 2025, the authority licensed the UAE’s first regulated online gaming website, a separate operation from the land-based casino project but evidence the regulator is building out both verticals in parallel. Ras Al Khaimah remains the only emirate hosting a licensed land-based facility so far.
Licence timeline
The GCGRA granted Wynn Al Marjan Island a Commercial Gaming Facility Operator licence on October 4, 2024, the first such licence issued in the UAE. Wynn Resorts confirmed the grant in a statement, noting the company was “the recipient of the first commercial gaming facility license in the UAE” and was already underway with construction in Ras Al Khaimah. The National has reported the licence runs for 15 years.
Vendor licensing followed through 2024 and 2025. Aristocrat became the first slot supplier approved, in October 2024, with other manufacturers following through the following year. System certification and employee licensing are expected to continue through 2026 ahead of the 2027 opening.
Construction and the developer
Wynn Al Marjan Island sits on a joint venture between affiliates of Wynn Resorts, Marjan (the master developer of Al Marjan Island) and RAK Hospitality Holding, the investment arm of the Ras Al Khaimah government. Wynn Resorts holds roughly a 40% economic interest in the venture; Marjan and RAK Hospitality Holding hold the remainder.
Project cost has climbed as construction has advanced. An early foundation-stage estimate put the build near $3.9 billion; by August 2026, Wynn Resorts and its partners put the total at $5.7 billion, up $600 million from the $5.1 billion figure the company had guided to previously. Wynn Resorts has put $1.06 billion in cash into the project to date.
“Construction at Wynn Al Marjan Island is progressing at a rapid pace,” said Craig Billings, chief executive of Wynn Resorts.
The resort sits on a man-made island off Ras Al Khaimah’s coast and is planned as an integrated resort: hotel rooms, a gaming floor, restaurants, entertainment venues and a 550-metre beachfront, alongside the casino itself. Ras Al Khaimah’s government has backed the project as an anchor for its wider tourism push, positioning the emirate against Dubai and Abu Dhabi for visitor spend even though neither of those emirates currently hosts licensed gaming.
Operator and public markets
Wynn Resorts Limited (Nasdaq: WYNN) operates the property through the joint venture and holds the GCGRA operator licence alongside its local partners. The UAE listing gives Wynn its first casino outside Las Vegas and Macau, and a first commercial land-based gaming market in the Gulf region. Marjan and RAK Hospitality Holding are both government-linked entities in Ras Al Khaimah rather than separately listed companies, so public market exposure to the project runs through Wynn Resorts’ own stock and its quarterly disclosures on construction spend and cash contributions.
Slot and gaming equipment suppliers
The GCGRA’s vendor approvals give the clearest read on which suppliers are positioned to put slot machines and gaming systems on the Wynn Al Marjan Island floor. Licensed gaming equipment and slot suppliers include Aristocrat, Light & Wonder, IGT, Novomatic and Konami. A separate set of licences covers lottery systems, held by Scientific Games, Pollard Banknote, Fennica Gaming, EQL Games, Smartplay and Random State AB.
Table games equipment approval has gone to TCS John Huxley, for cards and roulette hardware. PayBy holds a licence for digital payments and e-wallets, and Xpoint for geolocation technology used to enforce gaming-floor compliance.
Aristocrat’s head start, as the first slot supplier approved, gives it a year-plus lead on floor placement negotiations over Light & Wonder, IGT, Novomatic and Konami, though none of the parties has disclosed unit counts or floor allocation. Wynn Resorts has not named a slot mix publicly, and any numbers now would be estimates rather than confirmed figures.
What comes next
The GCGRA’s vendor and employee licensing rounds continue through 2026, alongside system certification for the approved suppliers. Wynn Resorts has not disclosed a specific date within September 2027, and further cost or schedule revisions remain possible given the scale of the build. The next marker to watch is whether the GCGRA issues additional operator licences before Wynn Al Marjan Island opens, which would signal whether Ras Al Khaimah’s casino market stays a single-operator market or opens to competition.
Source: GCGRA
