gaming:

Las Vegas Sands finishes towers at Singapore project

Thursday, June 25, 2009 | 1:21 p.m.

Headlines from the Vegas gaming industry

Las Vegas Sands has completed its three 55-story hotel towers at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, the company announced today. Sands will formally celebrate the topping off its $5.4 billion resort July 8.

Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson said the next step in the construction process will be placing the two-acre SkyPark on top the of the three hotel towers. The SkyPark will feature three swimming pools, several restaurants and bars, landscaped gardens and an observation deck.

Las Vegas Sands said most of the 2,500-room resort will be completed by the end of the year. In addition to gambling space, Marina Bay Sands will include an estimated 1.25 million square feet of meeting and convention space, an art and science museum, two theaters and 300 retail shops. The company said the resort would be complete sometime next year.

The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is among the few sites that Sands has continued construction on since the company hit financial turmoil last fall. Sands halted construction on projects in Macau last November, laying off as many as 11,000 workers, but officials said in April that Sands hopes to resume construction sometime this year.

Las Vegas Sands opened its newest casino in Bethlehem, Pa. last month. The $743 million Sands Bethlehem debuted will 3,000 slots and four restaurants.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By chazbean

6/25/09 at 2:37 p.m.

Suggest removal

I wish him well, but i think he will be in for a big surprise. There are too many Casinos!!!!!!!!
By BorisR

6/25/09 at 4:30 p.m.

Suggest removal

Singapore will get another casino soon. The Resorts world at Sentosa. These 2 ambitious projects are a masterpiece of architecture, but it's questionnable whether both of them will be able to attract enough tourists to unload their travel money at the casinos, and therefore, I have serious doubt that they will be profitable, at least not from the beginning. both casino resorts have other amenities and feature stuff like a museum, an amusement park, a roller coaster, Universal Studios, etc etc. I wonder if it will work out amid this crisis. But it's definetely something worth visiting once the Marina Bay Sands is open in December :)
From Switzerland
By BigStack

6/26/09 at 8:05 a.m.

Suggest removal

Given the propesity torward gambling in the Asian cultures, I think this will do very well. The big question is, how much business will this siphon off from Vegas.
By BorisR

7/8/09 at 2:47 a.m.

Suggest removal

If you take a look at the big casinos on the Strip, you would think that they're all doing "all right" as there's gambling going on everywhere. Still, it's not. It's because the debt load of these properties is so extreme that they're losing big even though they're winning money!!! And that's the big paradoxom.
The Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino, as it looks like on the website, is a mega project and a very ambitous business concept. And it's definetely a masterpiece of architecture and a milestone for Singapore gaming.
On the other hand, the reader should not forget that a casino of this size needs a lot of traffic just to break even. Singapore is suffering and is no longer the only center of economical trade in Asia. China took so much business away that Singapore, even as a financial headquarter is no longer alone. I am not sure if they can attract enough tourists to this resort that's necessary and turn this property into a goldmine. Hey, this is not Macao where people go just for gambling and getting good massages. Singapore is a big city and now will also get gambling. It's probably a super gamble whether it will succeed or not in the first place. I will watch carefully what's going on, but I will not go there if they really charge 275 SGD per night for the room and the machines are super tight, and the b-j rules are restricted as they are on the Vegas Strip.

Good luck, Mr Adelson.
By go4win

10/17/09 at 7:57 p.m.

Suggest removal

MarinaBaySands have just started to build it 2-acre skypark, which it announed to take about 3 months to complete. They have plan to open its 1st phase of operation around Feb 2010. Of course I think they will be success as they did in Maccau. Whether they will attract enough tourists to the resort? I bet it will! With the help of Singapore Tourist Board and the governing body, nothing is impossible! Just look at the F1 night race they have organised. For Singapore, there are only success no failure... I bet it to hit jackpot when they open...
From Malaysia, Ken