MR ADELSON, receiving the Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award from Mr Forbes(right). He is counting on the two-horse race between his firm and Malaysia's Genting - and a big bet on conventions - to result in big bucks. -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
WITH just one competitor in town, Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson believes his company has a winning hand in its upcoming Singapore venture.
Even as costs of building the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort look set to swell, the American billionaire is counting on the two- horse race - and a big bet on the convention business - to translate into big bucks.
'This will be a duopoly and, of course, any place that has a duopoly will be very profitable,' said Mr Adelson yesterday at the Forbes Global CEO Conference.
Speaking in a public interview after receiving a lifetime achievement award from Forbes magazine president Steve Forbes, Mr Sheldon added that his mega project will have enough space to host the world's biggest conventions.
Las Vegas Sands pipped three other rivals last year with a $3.85billion bid for a government tender to build Singapore's first integrated resort.
But rising construction costs amid a building boom and refinements to the project's design may bump up the amount, which excluded a fixed land price of $1.2 billion, by as much as 40 per cent, The Business Times quoted chief operating officer William Weidner as saying last month.
Malaysia's Genting International is building Singapore's second gaming development on Sentosa island.
Las Vegas Sands' Singapore resort will be the company's second foray into Asia, after it opened a US$2.4 billion (S$3.6 billion) casino resort in Macau last month.
Mr Adelson said the region has room for 10 more of these mega developments, as gaming becomes increasingly accepted as just another form of entertainment.
'I see the gaming industry as being in its infancy.
'Gaming has evolved from gambling dens into Disneylands for adults,' said Mr Adelson, who reckons that other parts of the world, such as Europe and India, could do with more mini Las Vegas-styled casino resorts.
These developments, he said, are really 'cities of entertainment' where gambling is just one of the elements.
Gaming takes up just 1 per cent of the space of the company's flagship Venetian resort in Las Vegas, and just 5 per cent in its Macau outfit, he added.
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'This will be a duopoly and, of course, any place that has a duopoly will be very profitable.'
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