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December 1, 2009

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Gaming:

Las Vegas Sands exec gets promotion, $535,000 raise

Rob Goldstein replaces Brad Stone as executive vice president

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 3:52 p.m.

Click to enlarge photo

Rob Goldstein

Las Vegas Sands has promoted and extended the contract of longtime executive Rob Goldstein, the company announced today.

Goldstein, formerly a senior vice president with Sands, will fill the position of executive vice president while still maintaining his role as president of the Venetian. Goldstein served as the company’s senior vice president for nearly 15 years.

Sands’ executive vice president position has remained vacant since Brad Stone, the former executive vice president and president of global operations, resigned in March.

“Rob has played an important role in the success our organization has had to this point and we are pleased he will be with us as we work to successfully execute on our development plan and take the company to the next level,” Las Vegas Sands chairman and chief executive officer Sheldon Adelson said in a statement.

Goldstein will also see an increase of $535,000 in his base salary with the promotion and contract renewal, a Security and Exchange Commission filing revealed today. He will have a base salary of $1.5 million compared to the $965,000 base salary he was earning before.

Goldstein is also eligible to receive a bonus of $250,000 each year based on performance. In Business Las Vegas reported in June that Goldstein received $2 million in total compensation from the company in 2008.

Stone received a base salary of $1 million from 2006 to 2008 in his role as executive vice president.

Stone left the company in March after longtime colleague and former Sands president William Weidner was ousted from the company. Stone had served as the company’s executive vice president since 1995.

CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct the length of time Goldstein has served as the company’s senior vice president.

Discussion: 31 comments so far…

  1. Now refresh my memory, how employees have been laid-off by LVS this year?

  2. This is pathedically halarious. Only in America.

  3. You're right. Only in America do PRIVATE companies have the ability to pay their employees what they want without government intervention...well, until about 2 months ago. See GM and the likes.

    If Sands wants to do this, let them. If it's a bad market decision they will lose money, as will the shareholders, and change is put into motion. What happned to the America that used to let private entities make mistakes?

    God Bless America. God Bless free market economics.

  4. I hope that steve7952 was trying to make a joke by spelling like that.

  5. vote with your dollars, folks.

    don't like how much basketball players make?

    don't go to basketball games.

    don't like the fact the sands has laid off your friends, family, leading to more foreclosures, reducing property values, that leads to crime?

    don't spend a dime there.

  6. I like the gelato in the food court. I never made a nickel wagering at their tables. I guess it all goes to the executives.

  7. Well he is doing such a great job liquidating the Company, he deserves his cut.

    Anybody who thinks this is Free Market Economics needs to wake-up.

    Tell you what, email me, and i will gladly run LVS into the ground for half what they pay this bozo.

  8. This guy has taken the LVS stock price down 87.9% in last year alone. In other words he has obliterated 32 BILLION Dollars in shareholder value in one year.

    From the highs in late 2007, this company's share price has plummeted 95%.

    Imagine if you screwed up at a 95% rate on your job. The LVS is INSANE to be paying this guy 4 pennies.

  9. Why is it that the little thinking folks make a lifestyle of whining while the rest of the world moves on? I bought 200 shares of LVS the day it became available and another 1,800 shares last November .... 2,000 more last March. I have lived in Las Vegas since 1974 and haven't gambled more than a grand the entire time I have lived here. (Probably why I have a little to invest when opportunity presents) There is money to be made at a casino, just not on property. Get on board the train or wave goodbye. I promise you, the rest of the world has better things to do than pick on the downtrodden. Quite being professional victims, the pay sucks!!

  10. How you doing on your RE Investments SR Henderson? making enough from your fantasy LVS trades to make-up the difference?

  11. SRJHenderson:

    Oh, listen to you, oh wise one. You want an f'ing medal to go along with your BS??? We are not impressed.

  12. Adelson and his wife own the majority of the stocks. This means, they are the absolute kings of this company. They can do whatever they please. The other shareholders have nothing to say. It's just insane to publish such figures and payraises while at the same time employees will get fired. I feel sorry for the employees and the company's result actually is not as good as it should be to justify such a huge payrise. I wonder what's the idea behind it all. To me, this is completely insane.

    From Switzerland

  13. Another reporter who doesn't know the history of LV Sands. Goldstein was an exec at the Sands Atlantic City. This was a completely separate company from LV Sands, which only started in the 1990s when Sheldon Adelson bought the Sands Las Vegas. No wonder this rag doesn't have a clue about the gaming industry.

    But Goldstein is being rewarded for his loyalty. An admirable trait in this tough business, I would say.

  14. Get over it people! Success = rewards. Plain and simple... Recession or not... Good job to him, cant say Im not jealous in a way but by no means am I going to "knock him" for climbing the corp ladder and getting paid for it. Work hard/ play hard - I guess he'll be playing even harder now...

  15. You see I write it over and over here, this shamefull company fires 200 small salary people then hire/raise salary for executives to a Ridicules point, Where are the savings to the company they "brag" about THERE ARE NONE. maybe this is all about stcking it in the face of Stone etc who quit the old man.You tell me!!

  16. So basically the 250 employees who were laid off a couple of weeks ago were only canned to offset the cost of this guys promotion. I mean congrats to him but what a way to treat people. Financially ruin several hundred people lives so one douche bag can purchase an extra ferrari every year...

  17. where's neiman and henderson to defend these jerks, oh yeah they're on another blog bushing union workers.

  18. Another fine example of how Wall Street is screwing Investors. For those who purchase stocks, don't. You'd have much less stress using your hard earned cash in the fireplace.

    The is the reason we're in depression today, small town America invests and Wall Street uses it for their own little saving account. Anybody with any common sense would've fired this guy years ago.

    Publicly traded companies have no accountability; failure should be termination; failure to Wall Street = millions upon millions is lavish spending lifestyles and incomes that should be criminal.

    I am all for paying people for performance, explain to me this guys performance justifies his income?

    Americans will revolt against the system we've become; we're fed up with Wall Street and Politicians screwing America!

  19. Is anyone else tired of having to be ashamed of staying in school, studying hard, working hard, deciding to take a professional tract, making sacrifices, taking risks in positions to someday be financially rewarded?

  20. milomcg

    This is completely the opposite of what you posted. This guy didn't go to UNLV and get a Hotel Degree, Oh no, he is a lawyer from back east. His specialty is soaking investors, employees and customers. The only value created here, is in his pocket.

    Many of you need to wake-up to the Madoff Coffee. Not saying Goldstein is another madoff, but the fact he has driven the stock price down 95% in 2 years should be considered, no? How is it possible if things were legit, this guy like so many others is still not only employed, but being rewarded for destroying value?

    Seriously, wake the hell up.

  21. Steve Wynn as much as said Adelson was a fool in the way he runs his companies. Maybe this is another foolish move .

  22. The times and the climate should dictate how salaries are paid out. Talk about poor judgement.Is this how they tighten their belt ?

  23. it's capitalism.

    if you are outraged at how much this guy makes and you've ever dropped a single dollar in a slot machine there, you paid his salary.

  24. What another good way to put us on the map.We cant get people here,and this guy gets money for running it into the ground?I have without a doubt that when the mob started vegas,they never even envisioned how it has ended up? What a slap in the face to Bugsies vision!

  25. Only in America do we have people like this:

    <<This is pathedically halarious. Only in America.>>

    LOL

  26. I love reading all the "haters" comments out there... The folks who will never reach the success that these execs have... Thats pathetic. I may not be 100% knowledgeable about what exactly there doing in "office" but do not hate just because they are getting paid a pretty penny. That part is from hard work, education, and knowing the right people.

  27. you know i forgot to put stevem in with henderson and neiman on defending their buddies-RICH WHITE GUYS

  28. formervegas buddies are the TRAILER TRASH WHITE BOYS.

    am i doing it right?

    anyone actually know what the performance of the company was? did they actually improve (and thus, justifying the raise) or what?

  29. You whiners out there really should step into a time travel machine and head for Bolshevik Russia. You'd fit right in! Henderson has it right; you can still make money in this market if you quit focusing on how "unfair" life is. When Citibank tanked at a dollar, there were ummm, certain people, who bought as much of that stock as they could get their little hands on and proceeded to make a KILLING. And that's not from being a financial expert, just by reading about Citinank on Drudge!

    There is so much opportunity in this great capitalist country! How is this man not getting a raise going to make your life better or happier, save for being happy that, "hopefully", the exec is now as miserable as you?

    Adelson is entitled to to basically whatever he wants because HE is the one that took the risk (I still
    remember all the naysayers), not any of you.

    And, btw, instead of getting so outraged over a tax paying business engaging in a business decision that-horrors!- makes someone "rich", how about transforming your class envy into rage at the hundreds of thousands of YOUR TAX DOLLARS being spent at the Waldorf in Phoenix for
    group hugs for SSA employees? This is your money being wasted, yet all you can do is gnash your teeth over a tax paying business giving someone a hefty raise.

    Even if the Venetian had proved to be a big flop, it's still Adelson's companymore or less. Let the
    free market decide. If you are so mad at a casino exec's raise, don't patronize it or sell ypur stock. That is your right as an American (!) as Moabama hasn't taken over the casino business-yet.

  30. i have the unfortunate experience of working for LVS, i find something new everyday to anger me, i really think that its crap that some executive can have 500+ people laid off one week the next freeze all raises for hourly employees until 2010, and then he gets a raise, what 965,000 plus stock options cant pay the bills he needed another 535,000 if anything maybe he should get laid so he can experience the hardship
    screw over hundreds of employees, that you supposedly care about and take care of, so some jerk off executive can get a raise i strongly advise people never to work for LVS if i could find a new job and not take a pay cut i would have quit a long time ago

  31. No raises for the workers, no bonuses, eliminate the 401k match, cut meals by 50%, increase in health care costs, increase in day care costs, layoffs of workers, constant pressure to do more with less, NO appreciation for the workers but they hire of $2M dollar executives and the President gets a $535k raise. Yep.....sounds just like LVS.

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