MACAU -- Members of two casino dynasties are set to challenge Las Vegas Sands Corp. on unproven turf in Asia's gambling capital.

Is Macau Next City of Dreams?
1:39
The new $2.4 billion Asian themed City of Dreams casino aims to draw mainstream Chinese gamblers and tourists to Macau and will test efforts to make the city the "Asian Las Vegas." WSJ's Carlos Tejada reports.
City of Dreams, with a final budgeted cost of more than $2.4 billion, is set to open Monday on Cotai, a strip of marshland about nine kilometers from Macau's traditional gambling district. The new 420,000-square-foot casino eventually will offer more than 500 gambling tables, three hotels and a shopping mall. Attractions include a domed multimedia theater, an electronic aquarium with digital fish and a Hard Rock Hotel displaying a Bob Dylan fedora and a Madonna bustier.

The new casino will open across the street from the Sands Venetian Macao complex, the world's largest casino by area. City of Dreams backers Lawrence Ho and James Packer -- the sons of Macau gambling impresario Stanley Ho and the late Australian casino-and-media magnate Kerry Packer, respectively -- are betting that a second Cotai casino will lure enough new traffic to build a new Macau revenue base.