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Japan – Las Vegas Sands highlights position in Japan

By - 28 April 2017

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson believes the operator is in the strongest of positions to win one of the licenses to operate an Integrated Resort casino in Japan.

Mr. Adelson said:”Japan is what everybody is talking about. We have been informed by people in the know in Japan that Las Vegas Sands is by far, not just marginally, but by far ahead of the other competition to get the integrated resort approval.”

He sees the company’s success in the Singapore casino market with Marina Bay Sands as being integral to this belief.

He explained: “Everybody in Japan, Korea, those places that have yet to legalise IRs with gaming, they’re all referring to Singapore. They want an Marina bay Sands-type integrated resort and it is the reference site for the entire world.

“We’re the largest gaming and integrated resort company in the world, by far,” he added. “Our market cap equals or exceeds all the other Las Vegas companies combined. So we’re what other people look to, other emerging markets look to, not being that familiar with our industry, they’ll look to the biggest and the people that could bring the greatest benefit to them. And MICE is where our greatest benefit is. We are the MICE operators, and all of our properties are MICE-based. When we built The Venetian Macao, we put in an 800,000 square feet of exhibition space, and, save for the Canton Fair facility, we’re the biggest facility. We were the biggest facility in China, the country of 1.3bn people. So where would emerging markets look to? Of course, they’ll look to us first.”

Robert Goldstein, Las Vegas Sands President, added: “Anytime we get a new jurisdiction or visit, tours government or businesspeople, it’s always MBS they refer to aesthetically, and frankly, operationally. And it’s a great product for us. We’re very proud of our success there.”

Mr. Adelson added South Korea to the mix of places that Las Vegas Sands would compete to operate in.
“We’re certainly looking at Korea,” he said. “We are looking at Vietnam, where they’re just starting to experiment a pilot program. We’re not necessarily in love with the conditions or the three-year test period. We don’t want to spend billions of dollars and find out in three years they’ve changed their mind and they’re not going to allow locals in. So we want to see how that goes. And we are still active in lobbying in Thailand. So we’re also looking at South America. And we’re looking at a couple of, one in particular, in New York, we certainly will be a candidate there.

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