Inside Asian Gaming

September 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 25 16 (-) Stephen Weaver Consultant Sands China Asian” for the post. Mr Weaver’s background is as a property lawyer in senior management positions with Savills and Jones Lang LaSalle. The most obvious reason for his return to Sands China would be to drive through development of the company’s US$4.2 billion Cotai 5 and 6 projects extending its real estate on the Cotai Strip™. The project is around twice the size of The Venetian Macao. That’s a demanding task even without the headache of having to hire one local construction worker for every migrant brought onto the site, as demanded by the Macau government. If anyone can solve this conundrum, it’s likely to be MrWeaver. He already has a good track record as a project boss. He first joined LVS in 2005, becoming Chief Development Officer in Macau in the early phases of the US$2.4 billionVenetianMacao. In September 2006, MrWeaver was promoted to President, Asia, for Las Vegas Sands Corp where he successfully managed the completion, outfitting and launch of The Venetian’s massive real estate inventory prior to its opening to the public in August 2007. After Steve Jacobs became President, Macau, for LVS in May 2009, and then Chief Executive of Sands China in August 2009 prior to Sands China’s successful flotation on the Hong Kong stock market, Mr Weaver’s public profile diminished to the point of near invisibility. While Mr Weaver is now back as a consultant, he may prefer to stick with what he apparently does best—making big projects happen—rather than getting immersed in big company politics. 15 (16) Philip Chun Chairman and CEO Paradise Group Mr Chun, chairman of Paradise Group since 2004, presided over a 21.3% increase in sales for this private sector South Korean casino operator during 2009. Paradise runs five foreigners-only casinos in Korea, plus a boutique property in Nairobi, Kenya. The company’s flagship is Sheraton Walker-hill Casino, founded in 1968 in the South Korean capital, Seoul. The group also has a spa and hotel in Dogo, Chungnam, but 97% of Paradise’s sales come from gaming, according to the financial report for 2009. Those sales reached KRW340.7 billion (US$280 million), a 21.3% increase from the previous year. Operating income reached KRW28.4 billion, surging 107.2% year on year. Paradise Casino, located at Haeundae Beach at the port city of Busan, opened in 1981 and offers live games including blackjack, baccarat and roulette, along with 40 slot machines. Paradise Grand Casino, located in the Grand Hotel, Jeju Island, is five minutes from the local airport, and offers various table games and 50 slot machines. Lotte Casino, also on Jeju, offers customers 87 Las Vegas-style gaming machines in two private VIP rooms. Paradise Casino Incheon was the first South Korean casino opened to foreigners in 1968. It was renamed Golden Gate Casino when it moved to the Hotel Hyatt Regency Incheon near the city’s airport in August 2005. Paradise Safari Park Casino in Nairobi, Kenya, has 40 tables offering blackjack, poker, pontoon and roulette plus 100 gaming machines. The potential for the South Korean casino market would be much greater if the government were to open the whole market to domestic players. Kangwon Land, the nation’s only casino open to South Korean passport holders, is expected to record gross revenues of US$2.3 billion in 2010, according to industry research company Korea Leisure Industry Consulting. There is no sign currently that liberalisation of access is on the political agenda. Australian Stephen Weaver could justly be called one of the great survivors of Las Vegas Sands Corp. On 19th May this year, he left his job as Executive Director of Sands China after five hectic years in Macau. It was an open secret in local industry circles that Mr Weaver’s departure occurred after a power struggle with Steve Jacobs, at that time President and Chief Executive of Sands China. “Two Caesars are one too many,” as Augustus, the first Roman emperor once famously observed. Only two months later, Mr Jacobs was out, and Mr Weaver quickly returned to the Sands China family as a consultant. Michael Leven, LVS President and COO, made noises about the possibility of Mr Weaver’s return becoming permanent—or at least as permanent as any senior job in a major public company can ever be. If Mr Weaver’s return were to be permanent, it seems it won’t be as President and CEO of Sands China. In August, Mr Leven, acting as caretaker CEO of Sands China, said the company hoped to hire “an Asian Gaming 50 – 2010