Sands Singapore Casino Sued for Conference Mishaps

Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Singapore casino resort was sued by organizers of the first conference it hosted for misrepresenting a “complete disaster” as a world- class venue and for imposing duress, fear and force.

IPBA 2010 Pte, on behalf of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association conference, is asking the Singapore High Court to assess damages for misrepresentation, breach of agreement and Marina Bay Sands Pte’s conduct, according to a lawsuit filed June 8. The case counters the casino’s suit over unpaid bills.

Sands, controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, promised that the resort would be an “iconic venue” and open in a “grand fashion with a full suite of facilities,” according to the organizers of the May 2-5 conference. Power failed during a speech by the chief justice of New South Wales, Australia, and delegates complained of unfinished rooms, close facilities and lost luggage.

Delegates at the conference, which featured Singapore’s first premier, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, as a speaker, were greeted by water leaking into “unsightly” pails placed in the hotel lobby atrium. Some guests had to be sheltered with umbrellas at registration counters. Others were locked in their rooms because of malfunctioning latchkeys, the organizers said.

Casino License

The resort used the conference and Lee’s attendance to its “full commercial benefit” and to speed up the temporary occupation permit and casino license, obtained just days before the convention, the organizers said.

Marina Bay Sands threatened to “jeopardize” and withhold services for the meeting unless it was paid in full, they said.

As a result of the threats timed “to impose the maximum duress, fear and force,” IPBA handed three checks to Marina Bay Sands “under protest,” conference organizers said in their filing. The bar association, based in Tokyo, later stopped payment for two of the checks.

Marina Bay Sands sued IPBA on May 14 for withholding payment of S$300,000 ($212,000).

“We expected them to counter, and we’ll be defending our position very vigorously,” Michael Leven, Las Vegas Sands’ chief operating officer, said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview in New York.

“Some of the problems were normal opening difficulties that any property has, particularly one of that size,” Leven said. “But we did have a convention of lawyers to start out with, so we knew we were going to have some kind of conversation.”

Concessions Made

Marina Bay Sands “worked diligently” to solve issues during the conference and shared IPBA’s desire to resolve the case “amicably and quickly out of court,” the resort said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “We made a series of concessions and tried on a number of occasions to come to an amicable business settlement, but met with no success.”

“We’ve always left the door open for them,” said Yap Wai Ming, chairman of the organizing committee for the IPBA conference. “They chose to sue us.”

Sands halted projects in Macau and Las Vegas during the 2008 financial crisis and focused on the Singapore complex that opened in April. Singapore earlier lifted a four-decade ban on casinos in 2005 to help attract 17 million visitors and collect annual tourism revenue of S$30 billion by 2015.

Adelson, who opened parts of the $5.5 billion resort on April 27 after delaying a scheduled end-of-year debut, said then that the Singapore casino will be a “grand-slam home run.” A formal opening for the 2,560-room hotel is scheduled for June 23.

‘Unexciting’ Image

Singapore decided to license casinos to shed its “unexciting” image, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament in 2005.

To have said “no” to casinos would have signaled “that we want to stay put, to remain the same old Singapore,” Lee Kuan Yew, who was prime minister from 1959 to 1990, told legislators the same year. “A neat and tidy place with no chewing gum, no smoking in air-conditioned places, no this, no that — not a fun place,” he said.

Marina Bay Sands is one of Singapore’s two casinos. Genting Singapore Plc opened Resorts World Sentosa’s casino on Feb. 14.

Drew & Napier LLC is acting for IPBA and Harry Elias Partnership LLP is representing Sands.

The case is Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd. vs IPBA 2010 Singapore Pte Ltd. S348/2010 in the Singapore High Court.

Picture From : SMH

Thanks To : BUSINESSWEEK

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