In 2006, billionaire David Chow built a massive theme park in Macau that was supposed to usher in an era of unparalleled tourism and family vacations. The park included a Roman Colosseum, erupting volcano and replica Chinese fishing village, among other artifiicial wonders.

The Macau tycoon explained the vision behind the massive amusement park as he said, "I don't want Macau to be referred to as Las Vegas in Asia. I want it to be a different kind of destination - here we have culture and a vastly different market.”

But even with all of the work and care that Chow's people put into the park, its revenue results were less than impressive. Now he's eating his own words about making Macau a "different kind of destination" by tearing down his amusement park to make way for a casino resort. The resort is set to offer a large hotel, opera house and a dinosaur museum.

Chow's Macau Development Ltd. had a very difficult time raising money for this project. The company had hoped to raise US$788 million through an IPO, but fell far short of this after collecting $283 million in investments. Most of his previous investors were uneasy about dumping more money into Macau Development after the theme park disaster.

It seems that visitors continually chose gaming and the amenities offered inside of casinos, instead of opting for Chow's humid outdoor park. Failing to predict this outcome collectively cost Chow and his investors hundreds of millions of dollars.

Despite the massive losses, Chow remains convinced that his park was a success in its seven-year run. "We were never wrong. For me it was a park. We are not making money there. It was a gift to the society. Now we are going to build the park into a resort," he said.