Goldstein: Success changed view of Vegas

Thursday, May 26, 2005 | 11:14 a.m.

Rob Goldstein can laugh at the quote today.

"Anybody who wants to build 6,000 rooms in a city that is already overbuilt is smoking something," said a longtime casino executive and consultant in the Wall Street Journal in 1997.

Goldstein, senior vice president of Las Vegas Sands Corp., told a group attending the Gaming Technology Summit in a keynote speech Wednesday that Las Vegas is constantly confounding the experts and proving them wrong.

Goldstein, who also holds the title of president and chief operating officer of the Venetian, assured about 200 technology professionals attending the two-day event at the Green Valley Ranch that his boss, Sheldon Adelson, smokes nothing stronger than a cigar.

He said his company is gearing to take its strategy of building cash flow and selling off nongaming assets as it has done in Las Vegas to Asia's newest gaming mecca, Macau.

Goldstein said Las Vegas Sands has made its fortune going against the grain and taking unconventional routes to profitability.

He said his company has capitalized on rooms, restaurants, retail and entertainment ventures and it plans to continue the strategy with construction of the $1.6 billion Palazzo and the Macau venture on the Cotai Strip.

Goldstein said the gaming industry establishment viewed rooms, restaurants, retail and entertainment as loss leaders to get people into the casinos. But going with a nongaming-centric model, Adelson determined that people would flock to quality offerings that could become their own profit centers.

Las Vegas Sands wasn't the first to do everything.

Goldstein noted that there was considerable skepticism prior to the opening of the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

"That became the most successful retail center in the country," Goldstein said. "The Forum Shops struggled at first, but now it is the highest grossing retail center in the country with $1,250 in sales per square foot. We followed with the Grand Canal Shoppes and it turned out to be the second best, with about $1,100 in sales per square foot."

Goldstein also noted that restaurants featuring culinary creations by Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse drew attention, but were generally panned by critics. Today, Las Vegas has 50 of the nation's top restaurants.

Goldstein's only discussion about technology was a note that the Venetian's rooms include fax machines, copiers and Internet access -- a standard that draws business people on weekdays while they attend conventions, meetings and trade shows.

"Las Vegas never had a problem filling rooms on the weekends," Goldstein said. "Our strategy was to get them to attend meetings and shows in Las Vegas and fill the rooms during the week."

Goldstein said casino-centric thinkers wanted to see the Comdex computer trade show disappear because delegates weren't high-spending gamblers.

The Venetian, opened in 1999, has generated $2 billion in cash flow and asset sales and is still going strong. The 7,000-room campus that will be in place when the Palazzo opens will continue the trend, Goldstein said.

And, in Macau, where the average wager per hand is $91 compared with $19 in Las Vegas, Goldstein expects more big things. The development on the Cotai Strip is expected to be completed by 2010.

In addition, Las Vegas Sands is competing to be one of the concessionaires for a resort in Singapore, he said.