It’s been less than one month since Las Vegas Sands cancelled plans to build an integrated resort in Madrid, but company chairman Sheldon Adelson wants to pitch the same ideas to some of the major European cities, including the Spanish metropolitan areas he already spurned. In walking away from the Madrid plans, the company cited the inflexibility of Spanish regulators to stabilize tax rates and permit smoking as reasons for departing.
In an interview in Herzliya, Israel before the end of the year, Adelson said that he’s still interested in Europe.
“I’m looking at a different model of doing Singapore-like or Japan-like or Korea-like individual IRs in individual cities,” Adelson said. “We will just take the major cities in Europe and see whether or not there is a possibility to pursue that.”
Adelson cited Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Athens and Paris are possible sites for new IRs, saying only cities that have existing tourism infrastructure of hotels, restaurants, meeting and exhibition space and adequate transportation would be considered.
In the meantime, Adelson said his focus is on Asia, saying that Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand may allow the establishment of integrated resorts in the future.
“If they do, I’ll have a lot to keep me busy for the next five to ten years,” he said.
Meanwhile, more details of his demands for an IR located in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcón were coming to light. In addition to demands for a stable tax rate and casino smoking, he wanted fewer restrictions on visas for foreign workers, a two-year exemption on paying social security for his workers and lower rates after that, zoning changes that would permit high-rise buildings, and dramatically lower property taxes. Most of those demands were met (for example the gaming tax was reduced from 45 percent to 10 percent), but last-minute demands that LVS be protected from any legislation that may imperil its investment and compensation from the government should that occur were apparently too much.
Ironically, the Adelson debacle has tarred both the left and the right in Spain. While the socialists initiated the contact with Adelson and began negotiations, the conservatives continued the negotiations and are in charge at the time the deal collapsed.
