Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2011 50 I n September last year, Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) Chairman Sheldon Adelson floated the idea of dropping the ‘Las Vegas’ from his company name in favour of the all-encompassing‘international.’ Although no progress has beenmade on the proposed name change, such a move would reflect the company’s ambitions to develop sprawling mega resorts in several new jurisdictions. LVS already derives over 80% of its annual revenues from Asia (namely, Macau and Singapore), and it’s been eyeing markets including Japan and Vietnam for possible further expansion in the region. 18th May was a significant day for LVS, as it marks the seventh anniversary of its initial foray into Asia, with the opening of Sands Macao—the property that officially ended Stanley Ho’s 42-year operatingmonopoly inMacau. Inside AsianGaming publisher Kareem Jalal caught up with LVS 2IC [second in command] Michael A. Leven on the 18th for the first in IAG ’s INSIGHTS interview series, produced in collaboration with Aomen TV. Kareem Jalal: Today marks seven years to the day since Sands Macau opened; your first property in Macau. Has the market here shaped up the way you’ve expected? Michael Leven : If you look at the numbers here, Macau is now five times the size of the gaming market of Las Vegas. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that seven years ago when we got here the first time, Macau would generate such a massive amount of gaming revenue compared to Las Vegas, which was the leading revenue in the world. I know our founder, Mr. Sheldon Adelson’s vision for Cotai strip and for what could happen here was very significant. But even he was surprised by the size of the numbers. Do you have a timeframe for when the mass market might catch up to the VIP market in Macau? I think in terms of number, VIP is always going to be pretty significant here because of the size of the wagers and the amount being wagered on the table on a per person basis is very significant. But I think the key to Macau’s future is still going to be the mass market, because that’s what’s going to stay no matter what. In the VIP area, there is considerable amount of times that you watch credit, it will vary with the size of the growth of the very large players. You don’t know when that’s going to get topped out. But I think in the INSIGHTS – Inside Asian Gaming In the first of IAG ’s new series of video interviews with leading members of the Asian gaming community, Las Vegas Sands Corp President and Chief Operating Officer Michael A. Leven shares his thoughts on growth in Macau and Singapore and the company’s plans for regional expansion. INSIGHTS can be viewed online at the IAG website, www.asgam.com, and below is a transcript of the interview Michael Leven INSIGHTS mass market is nowhere near being topped out over the years . So I think you’re going to see the mass market get closer to VIP. It won’t pass it, but it will get closer in terms of percentage. Has anythingheld it backdoyou think?Doyou thinkperhaps infrastructure or even because the VIP is so dominant the operators haven’t been focused enough on it, especially the other operators? I think the infrastructure hasn’t been here so much for the mass market. We didn’t have enough hotel rooms.We’re gettingmore now. With the opening of Sands Cotai properties 5 and 6, there’ll be more hotel rooms, more popularly priced rooms that will drive people in. I think where so much of the business has come from contiguous areas in China, as opposed to further away in China, that market’s going to continue to grow. And the bridge, more runways, more planes, more international visitors, more MICE business, everything points to the fact that over the years, the Macau mass market is just