Shifting Las Vegas Sands, Storied Gambling Brand Seeks Return To Home Shores
Las Vegas Sands, owner of the most storied brand in world gambling, is looking to return to home shores with a planned US$6 billion (£4.71bn) mega casino in New York City.
Having sold its Venetian and Palazzo casinos on the Vegas Strip a year ago for US$6.25 billion (£4.9bn), to focus exclusively on its cash-cow Far-Eastern casino resorts, Las Vegas Sands–despite its famous name and heritage–doesn’t run a single property on homeland shores; excepting its corporate headquarters in Paradise, Nevada.
From its inception in 1952, the original Sands Hotel and Casino, founded by illegal bookmakers and larger-than-life gangsters, became the very essence and ‘sine qua non’ of that early Vegas gambling scene, beloved of legend and countless movies.
It was the stomping ground of the storied, Frank Sinatra-led ‘Rat Pack’ (pictured, above). Once owned by the reclusive billionaire industrialist and film producer Howard Hughes, it was the away-day pleasure dome of a then-Senator Jack Kennedy and a melee of showbiz swingers and politicos.
And it could well be the origin of that famous dictum: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” or “if walls could talk, they’d blush!”
Great NYC Casino Rush
In 1988 the Sands brand was bought by Sheldon Adelson, who demolished the original hotel in November, 1996 and replaced it with a new mega resort called The Venetian some two-and-a-half-years later.
Last year Las Vegas Sands formally cut its last ties with its home US market to concentrate on its extensive Far-Eastern operations; where it owns resorts five casinos in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau: the Venetian Macau, Sands Macau, The Londoner, Plaza and Four Seasons and Parisian, and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
But now Las Vegas Sands–which posted revenues of US$10.37 billion (£8.14bn) in 2023; US$6.56 billion (£5.15bn) generated by Macau operations–has joined the Great New York City Casino Rush and is seeking permission to break ground on a new US$6 billion mega casino resort in metropolitan Long Island.
Las Vegas Sands joins Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, Hard Rock International and Bally’s Corp. in the tough race to secure a slice of Big Apple gambling action.
Empire State licensing authorities will only greenlight three casino licences for their ‘City That Never Sleeps’, a top US gaming insider told this reporter.
Lift
With a catchment area of around 20 million people, not counting out-of-state tourist footfall, it’s estimated the three proposed casinos could produce revenue of some US$4.8 billion a year (£3.76bn).
Las Vegas Sands is targeting 80 acres in Nassau County, Long Island, in south-eastern metropolitan New York. Reports attest the casino giant is working with Long Island-based RXR Realty to develop the resort.
“[We plan to build] a multi-billion-dollar flagship hospitality, entertainment and casino project,” Las Vegas Sands confirmed this week.
“Our proposed project would be designed to produce tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the local community on an annual basis,” said the company’s CEO Rob Goldstein (pictured, right).
“The project would also provide a lift for local businesses through a robust procurement program and support a broad range of community organisations and causes.”
It will include “outdoor community spaces”, luxury hotel rooms, restaurants, a convention centre and a live performance venue.
But details about gaming have not been disclosed, to date.
Added Goldstein: “We strongly believe Long Island can be home to one of the region’s great entertainment and hospitality developments.”
Watch this space.
