The wait is finally over for the $3.6 billon Brisbane riverfront casino precinct after eight years of construction and a 12-month delay.
But questions still remain over the controversial project's viability.
The staged opening of the Queen's Wharf hub in the city's CBD began on Thursday, offering the Star Grand Hotel and casino, Sky Deck public viewing platform, event centre and bikeway.
It is the first phase of the 12 hectare precinct that Queensland Premier Steven Miles said represented a "vision of the city".
Hundreds of people were seen queuing up outside despite only seven of the more than 50 restaurants, cafes, and bars opening on Thursday.
"Queen's Wharf will be the biggest new integrated resort development to open in the world for years to come," Mr Miles told reporters on Wednesday.
He added: "It hasn't all been smooth sailing".
Construction lasted eight years with a planned mid-2023 opening delayed for 12 months due to several setbacks.
And controversy still shrouds the casino precinct with the future of the Star in Queensland - as well as NSW - in question.
The Star's Queen's Wharf casino will operate under the state government's approved remediation plan and the the oversight of the regulator.
Brisbane's Treasury Casino - which opened in 1995 - closed on Sunday night to make way for the new precinct's opening.
The Queensland government fined the Star in Brisbane and the Gold Coast $100 million in 2022 after a review found the casinos had "major failings" in anti-money laundering attempts and responsible gaming efforts.
The government had initially decided to slap a 90-day ban on both casinos in December 2023 but has delayed the suspension until the end of 2024 as the state government awaits the outcome of a NSW inquiry.
Star Brisbane CEO Daniel Finch on Thursday said they had gone "a long way" to completing the remediation plan.
"We have a heightened focus on all of our anti money-laundering policies, procedures, our internal control manuals and measures," he told reporters at the precinct's media launch.
He said they were also looking at counter-terrorism financing along with safer gambling and harm minimisation.
"We have an enormous team now. We have protocols in place and we are well and truly on our way to suitability."
Mr Finch said the Queen's Wharf precinct was about entertainment, not gambling.
"We've diversified revenue ... it's just not about the casino, particularly with Queens Wharf, the casino is only five per cent of the whole entire precinct," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
The nearby Neville Bonner Bridge - named after Australia's first Indigenous parliamentarian - also opened on Thursday.
Up to 10,000 pedestrians each day are expected to cross the bridge which links South Bank's cultural precinct with Queen's Wharf, acting as a thoroughfare to the city centre.
"We've been talking for some time about our vision of the city with high-quality precincts linked together with active travel and public transport links, and the heart of that vision starts to come together over the next few days," Mr Miles said.
