Las Vegas Sands, one of the leading gambling providers, reported really good Q3 profits despite the decline in the revenue and the current issues on the Macau gambling market.
The interesting change, however, is that the revenue for the months July, August and September has fallen but the profit increased with more than 7%.
Sheldon Adelson, the Chairman of Las Vegas Sands, didn’t miss to pinpoint the great achievement during his interviews for different media and announced that a great part of the dividends will be set aside for the company’s stock repurchase program.
Despite the fact that the media has relentlessly been announcing the issues of the Macau-based casino, the latest released data claims that the revenue of Sands China has fallen with less than half a percent while the profit reached more than $640 million.
Sheldon Adelson supported the strategy for preserving the VIP gambling sector from further downfall and considered the approach to be the most sensible one given the current situation. The aim of the authorities is providing their gambling products and services on the mass market, including the non-gaming sector.
Vinetian Macau was the leader in the chart with revenue, equal to $943 million. Sands Cotai Central is next with a revenue of $816 million. Sands Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao and Plaza Casino were ranked respectively fourth and fifth.
However, the downfall of the VIP gambling activities was obvious in all the casinos. Yet, a slight improvement was noticed in three out of the four venues.
A small decrease in the revenue of Marina Bay Sands was noticed as well. The revenue was $735 million and the operating income $260 million. The VIP gambling, the mass market activities and the number of hotel guests have also fallen down.
Things in the US-based Sands casinos are pretty optimistic though. The venues take pride in having a decent increase in the revenue.
Adelson regard the revenue decline as something temporary and he believes that things are going to improve really soon. He said that the Chinese residents haven’t lost their willingness to try their luck for 3, 000 years so the arguments that the downfall from the last four months will continue, are premature.
The smoking ban, imposed at the beginning of October, was also said to be something that has little to do with the revenue. Adelson made a witty comparison just to prove his opponents wrong and said that they are making a big deal out of it.
The Chairman also expressed his hopes that the company will be able to expand its business in three Asian countries – namely Vietnam, South Korea and Japan. Adelson took the responsibility of building an impressive casino in Korea, provided that the current issues with the gambling legislation are figured out.
