Jeff Simpson shares his thoughts on the year’s winners and losers

Sunday, Dec. 24, 2006 | 7:19 a.m.

I won't write about who has been naughty or nice this past year, but I will venture my opinion about the gaming industry's biggest winners and losers of 2006.

Winner of the year

Sheldon Adelson and his Las Vegas Sands Corp. are the runaway selection in a contest no closer than Troy Smith's Heisman Trophy win.

Sands has had an epic year. The company was selected to build a casino resort at Singapore's Marina Bay, besting the casino industry's two biggest operators, MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment, in the process.

This year Sands expanded its Sands Macau casino and the company reached a deal to build a huge, nongaming convention resort near Macau and Hong Kong in China.

And last week Pennsylvania gaming officials selected Sands for one of its slot licenses, and the company expects to convert a Bethlehem Steel mill into a slot palace.

With its Palazzo construction proceeding at a steady clip next door to its successful Venetian megaresort and a scheduled opening next year of its mammoth Venetian Macau, Sands may be poised to repeat in this category in the years to come.

Winner also-rans

Loser of the year

Nevada's slot route operators and restricted gaming license holders were the year's biggest losers, barring further court decisions.

Because the state's biggest slot route operators also own many bars and convenience stores, they decided to employ a cynical trick on voters rather than fight Question 5 on its merits or propose a common-sense alternative that would have banned smoking in restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores but allowed it in nightclubs and bars.

Voters were able to see past the Question 4 smokescreen, and approved Question 5, which was a very good thing.

Loser also-rans