Las Vegas Sands CEO Rob Goldstein has indicated that the company is in talks to build an major integrated resort on the scale of its Singapore property Marina Bay Sands at a “top-tier” country in Asia.
“I don’t want to say where, but we’ve had some rather interesting conversations with a major country there that has reached out to us,” Goldstein said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“It’s proprietary, but we’re looking to build something of scale much like Marina Bay Sands. A lot of countries in Asia have reached out to us over the years, but nothing’s happened. This one feels like it might be a major prospect. A major country, a top-tier country. I hope it’s real.”
LVS sold its Las Vegas holdings, the Venetian, Palazzo and Sands Expo Center, last year. In the interview, Goldstein said that in addition to Asia, the operator is exploring regions in the U.S. including Texas, Florida, and New York.
Industry speculation centered on Thailand as the probable “top-tier” country. Bernstein Research released a note saying it believed that the kingdom was the most likely candidate given the government has recently been studying potential regulation.
“We believe LVS is hinting at a potential opportunity in Thailand, which has seen an increase in interest from the government on looking at gaming legalization,” wrote Bernstein analyst Vitaly Umansky. “This is not the first time Thailand has been talked about as a gaming opportunity. The market potential could be substantial; however, as with all gaming legalizations, the devil is in the details.”
Thailand has long been considered a promising IR target because of its well-established tourist industry, good infrastructure, and large domestic market of nearly 70 million people. “Thailand is the elephant in the room,” said Ben Lee, managing partner of IGamiX Management & Consulting, in an interview with Asia Gaming Brief. “You can forget all the others.”
Goldstein noted the challenges LVS has faced in its main Asian market of Macau.
“We have a lot of things happening in Macau,” he told the Review-Journal. “Unfortunately, the market there is just very challenging, and until they open the doors up in China and Hong Kong, it remains challenging. We were the dominant player in that market for many years. We have the most invested, about $15 billion U.S., and we’re hoping to invest more and be a part of that market when it resurrects this year or next.”
Singapore is a different story, he said. “It’s fully open again. Indonesia and Malaysia are the key feeder markets coming back. We’re starting to see visitation. We hope to see more this month from Japan and Korea. Singapore feels like it’ll be back to full throttle by summer, except we won’t have visitation from China because China is still closed. But the rest of the Pacific Rim will open up to Singapore, and I think Singapore will do very, very well.”
