Inside Asian Gaming

better because of our Asian connections. Vegas, at its height, did about US$75 million dollars more a year than it does today. It’s a lot of money, but it is not really significant. That would be, let’s say, about 25% off the high of 2007. When do you think the real Vegas recovery will happen? There seemed to be one last year, but it turned out to be premature. That depends a lot on what you called a recovery. If it’s purely on a money basis, it’s going to be a while because room rates have not yet recovered, and it will take four or five years for that to happen. Although most of the properties in Vegas have reduced their staffs and their costs, it’s still very difficult to obtain 2007 profitabilities. So I would say it’s at least five years before you see Vegas get to those levels of income that they were. In terms of visitation, Vegas this year will do about 37 million people. At the height, I believe it was 39 million or so. So it’s about roughly 10% off the top, the visitation. We see some properties being imploded in Vegas right now. Is Vegas overbuilt—especially for right now? I think in some areas it’s overbuilt. It’s overbuilt at the middle and low end. A lot of that is product obsolescence. We just closed the Sahara hotel, it’s been there since 1952. There aren’t too many hotels that have been around since 1952, and if there are, you probably wouldn’t stay in them. So some of those are just natural a natural attrition of things. At the high end of the market in Vegas, it is somewhat overbuilt which, keeps a little bit of a cap on the rate structure. WhileMr. Adelson is known as the visionary of the company, you are often referred to as the man who gets things done. What do you think has earned you that reputation? I suppose you get a reputation like that when you do things. I have been doing this for nearly fifty and half years now, and a good part of that was as a chief operating officer—maybe 30 years as a chief operating officer, and I’ve been a chief executive officer for ten years as well. But I think when you’re a chief operating officer, the job is getting things done. You can do some strategy, but you better make sure it gets executed, so I’m the one that has to take Mr Adelson’s vision and make sure it happens. And is one of the things you’re on the lookout for someone to fill your shoes one day? I certainly am. I’m on my second contract with Las Vegas Sands, andwhen this one ends, part of my job is tomake sure I get somebody to replace me. We have people in the pen waiting patiently, and at some point in time, we’ll turn the reins over to them. Product obsolescence in Las Vegas—the Sahara Hotel and Casino closed last month