02 September 2008

Another Sands Castle - Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson Continues to Expand his Asian Empire in India

Las Vegas Sands Chairman, Sheldon Adelson has a fortune of 26 billion and is ranked 12th in Forbes Magazine's list of the world's richest people. He said he would consider spending $12 billion to build a strip of casinos in India similar to his current project in Macau. Adelson is currently the operator of Asia's biggest gambling resort, in Macua.

"We would like to build a Cotai Strip in India," Adelson told reporters at a briefing in Macau. "We would be happy to spend $12 billion there" if India invites the company. This is not a big gamble for Adelson. Macau which is close to Mainland China has already proven that where there is a crowd, there is cash. India is the world's second most populous nation, behind China.

Adelson didn't give details of the potential investment. India now has only one legal casino, in the western state of Goa, like Macau, another Portuguese colony, until 1961.

Las Vegas Sands is investing more than $15 billion building casinos in Singapore and Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal, as gambling revenue growth in its home market slows down.

Las Vegas Sands and rival Wynn Resorts Ltd. are vying for control of the casino market in Asia, where economic growth is faster than in the U.S. and Europe. The Cotai Strip, modeled on the Las Vegas Strip, is on reclaimed land between Macau's Coloane and Taipa Islands. Adelson want to do in a few years what Vegas did in forty.

He plans to build as many as 14 hotels in Macua by 2013. He spoke today at the opening of the Four Seasons Macau, its second property in the district. The Four Seasons will be part of a complex of hotels that will have more than 1 million square feet of gambling space, 3 million square feet of shops and almost 21,000 hotel rooms.

Adelson visited India, meeting the nation's ministers of tourism and trade, before he arrived in Macau, he said, without giving any details of their discussions. Adelson opened Macau's first foreign-owned casino in 2004, ending local kingpin, billionaire Stanley Ho's 40-year monopoly of the city's gambling market.

By Karen Loftus