Sheldon Adelson Passes Away

Long time online gambling opponent and source of much trouble for our industry, Sheldon Adelson died last night while hospitalized for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an illness first disclosed in early 2019. He was 87. The chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands and one of the Republican Party’s major donors, Adelson had recently taken a leave of absence to resume treatment for his illness. He rose from a hardscrabble childhood in Boston to become one of the world’s richest men as founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands. He was Sands’ first employee, which has now grown to over 50,000 employees….

Sheldon Adelson Takes Medical Leave

In March of 2019, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson announced he was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Mr. Adelson recently resumed his cancer treatment and will be taking a leave of absence as of today from his role as chairman and chief executive officer of both Las Vegas Sands and Sands China Ltd. The companies’ boards of directors have named Robert G. Goldstein, currently Las Vegas Sands’ president and chief operating officer, as acting chairman and acting chief executive officer of both organizations while Mr. Adelson is on medical leave. Las Vegas Sands is the…

Las Vegas Sands Could be Sold

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp is exploring a sale of its flagship casinos in Las Vegas for about $6 billion, a source told Reuters on Monday, with the move likely to mark the exit of the group’s chairman from the U.S. gambling industry for now. The properties included in the potential sale are Sands Expo Convention Center, the Venetian Resort Las Vegas and the Palazzo, the source added, asking not to be identified. A potential sale of the Las Vegas properties will concentrate the company’s casino portfolio entirely in Macau and Singapore. Bloomberg reported earlier that Las Vegas Sands…

Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Pays $7 Million Over “Corrupt Practices”

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s casino company is paying almost $7 million to U.S. authorities to end a more than five-year corrupt practices investigation of the firm’s former relationship with a consultant in Macao and China, company and federal officials said Thursday. With the agreement, Las Vegas Sands Corp. resolved twin probes of more than $60 million paid to an unnamed agent retained in 2006 to acquire a Chinese basketball team, plus other business dealings that include a Beijing real estate deal to promote casinos on the Cotai Strip of Macao, U.S. Justice Department and FBI officials said. The $6.96 million penalty…

Las Vegas Sands May Be Hurt By Macau Slump

A second bank said that a Macau slump in gambling revenue that could affect earnings for Las Vegas Sands and other top casinos in the hot gambling destination on China’s southern coast. Nomura Securities on Thursday cut its earlier-raised 2014 revenue growth forecast for Macau from 17% to 14%. The Japanese bank joined Wells Fargo, which, as reported earlier, has been warning for some time that Macau casinos face headwinds in the short term. Sands separately said Thursday that President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Leven will retire at the end of this year. And CEO Sheldon Adelson tried to…

Sheldon Adelson to Expand Global Empire

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire head of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, made an appearance in Asia recently to ask the government of Singapore for additional land in order to expand his casino resort there by roughly 60%, the Jewish Business News has reported. The plans Mr. Adelson laid out include making space for an additional 1,500 rooms at the Marina Bay Sands, which currently has about 2,500 rooms. Extra space was also requested for meeting rooms, exhibitions and ballrooms. According to the Jewish Business News, Sheldon Adelson said “we need more rooms,” and added that the hotel is “running at…