Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2011 58 “We have an arrangement with a gentleman by the name of Bowen Leung, who originally worked for the Hong Kong government and spent many years in Beijing, who’s now affiliated with us… He just joined us a few weeks ago to help us in our relationships with Beijing and Macau in particular.” want to throw our weight around—we don’t. But I think we want to be cooperative and help them. I think if you look at Macau going back to 2004, seven years ago when we opened Sands, and you look at it now, a lot of what you see, we have been somewhat responsible for. Not entirely, but somewhat. So we hope that continues over the years. Over those seven years, what is the greatest lesson you’ve learnt from operating here? That’s a very good question. We learn lessons everyday operating anywhere actually. There’s an old statement, ‘when in Rome,’ that they say in our country, ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ I think basically the best thing here, like in any place, is that you follow the rules, you pay attention to what’s important to the government and the people, and you can be successful. You have an immense responsibility overseeing so many properties in so many jurisdictions. What is the biggest challenge to that? Is it even difficult to keep track of what is going on in each jurisdiction? Listen. I haveawife. I have three children. I havefivegrandchildren. That’s a bigger challenge than what I do for my own living. Your Asian operations, are they supporting your operation in Las Vegas? No. Vegas is self-supporting, but I would say our Asian operations are 88% of our profitability as a company. But none of our units in Las Vegas, Bethlehem nor Pennsylvania are non-self-supporting for themselves. But our profits are overwhelmingly coming from Asia. Vegas has been in decline for the past couple of years. But have your properties, do you think, fared better than the others because of your Asian connection? In the VIP Asian gaming area, I think our property does a little government and spent many years in Beijing, who’s now affiliated with us. He works for us a few weeks a month. He just joined us a few weeks ago to help us in our relationships with Beijing and Macau in particular. Is political risk something you’re conscious of in Macau and in your dealings with China? Frankly, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about political risk. I think if you play by the rules and you act accordingly when you’re in someone else’s country, I don’t think there’s anything more to fear about it. We are a big producer for the economy in Macau. We represent, I think, 25-30% of the employees in Macau—a big number. And the trickle down for the economic benefit of the community from us is very significant. So we don’t Self-supporting—The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, Las Vegas INSIGHTS