Venetian owner sees interest shifting toward northern Strip

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.

The owner of the Venetian resort in Las Vegas said early results from the opening of Wynn Las Vegas last weekend bodes well for its own resort.

"We're experiencing a (higher) level of business activity at our end of the Strip as the center of gravity shifts north," Las Vegas Sands Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner said during an afternoon conference call Monday.

The Venetian hopes to capture more customer traffic as Wynn helps grow tourism in Las Vegas, especially since the property is priced under Wynn's resort, he said.

Room rates and occupancy also look strong in April, Las Vegas Sands Senior Vice President Brad Stone said.

The property also is beginning to reap some early benefits of a strategy to promote its Las Vegas resort in Macau, China, where the company opened a casino last year, executives said. Macau's little more than a dozen casinos generated about the same casino revenue as the entire Strip last year.

Table game volume set a new record in the first quarter as a direct result of the company's cross-marketing efforts in Macau, Stone said.

In March the company began to more aggressively court Asian high rollers by using in-house hosts, bringing in outside junket representatives and marketing a high-end gambling salon at the Sands Macau. The company opened a similar salon on the upper floors of the Venetian and also updated its baccarat pit -- a game preferred by Asian VIPs.

Next month, the company expects to initiate a marketing program in Macau to attract mass-market gamblers. Such players previously hadn't been courted by the Chinese enclave. The Sands Macau will add a theater and use techniques honed in Las Vegas to attract mainstream gamblers. They include a gambler loyalty club and bus trips from mainland China.

The Chinese government has loosened travel restrictions, allowing more Chinese to visit Macau, a former Portuguese colony. The government also has cracked down on illegal casino operators on the mainland as well as gambling by government officials in Macau and gambling using government-obtained funds, moves which may have decreased gambling volume in Macau, Sands executives said.

Shares of Las Vegas Sands fell Monday and continued to fall today after Wall Street analysts said the company's Macau casino didn't deliver as expected. But Sands executives said Monday that the company accounted for all of the 2 percent increase in VIP table game play in Macau in the first quarter compared with a year ago as well as the vast majority of the 60 percent increase in mass-market table play in Macau.

Gambling revenue in Macau was up 17 percent overall in the first quarter versus the year-ago quarter.

In the company's first-quarter earnings report Monday, Las Vegas Sands said it made an after-tax contribution of $3.6 million to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. The contribution is related in part to the company's recent development with the Guggenheim but is also intended to support the museum organization's global expansion efforts, Weidner said.

Las Vegas Sands is partnering with the Guggenheim to build a casino resort in Singapore, which is now considering proposals to build two such complexes. The Guggenheim would operate a large, "tourist, destination-style museum" at the site, Weidner said.

The foundation operates the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian.

"They have helped us here in positioning our product," Weidner said.