The Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s former partner in Macau says he’s entitled to some of the billions of dollars the U.S. gaming giant has made in the Chinese gaming hub since 2004.
Marshall Hao, head of Asian American Entertainment Corp., filed suit against Sands Macau in the U.S. in 2007, and followed with a lawsuit in Macau in 2012. He seeks damages of around 70 percent of the firm’s profits, estimated at around $12 billion.
Hao alleges that Sands breached its contract with Asian American for a casino license in Macau. In 2001, the partners jointly submitted a bid for a gaming concession, but then Sands changed partners, teaming up instead with Hong Kong group Galaxy Entertainment, according to the lawsuit. The new partnership went on to win a license in the former Portuguese colony, leaving Hao in the dust.
Earlier this year, Marshall Hao told Reuters that Sands terminated its joint venture with Asian American and then submitted a near-identical replica of its previous submission with new partner Galaxy.
“Asian American has been winning all major legal battles in the Macau lawsuit since we filed it in 2012,” he said. “We are confident.”
In 2019, Sands issued a statement saying it “has consistently maintained that this case has no merit. We have confidence that ultimately the Macao judicial process will reach the same conclusion.”
On October 15, Dave Sun Minqi, vice president and chief financial officer of Sands China, told the court that the amount claimed by Hao is exaggerated and is based on profits alone, disregarding long-term investments made by the company, as well as taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization, according to the Macau Daily Times.
“Asian American Entertainment Corp. had also not considered the management fees which the Macau operating entity had to pay to the parent Las Vegas Sands, as well as the licensing fees and development fees over a percentage of project costs,” the executive said in his testimony.
Sun also pointed out that the company has dealt with periods of economic challenge including two global financial crises (2002-04 and 2008-09) and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The executive said that to date, the group’s aggregate capital spending in Macau is US$15 billion, counting investments in the development and operation of the Sands Macao, Venetian Macao, Parisian Macao, the Four Seasons Macao suites, and the still under-development Londoner.
