On the Call: Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson

Las Vegas Sands Corp., which reported Thursday that its first quarter brought both a $28.9 million loss and record revenue due primarily to its casinos in Macau, opened a casino in Singapore last month.

The $5.7 billion Marina Bay Sands was the second most expensive casino development in the world, after the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip.

Singapore is a different market from Macau, where junket operators drive business to casinos and receive fees in return.

After another executive answered a question during a conference call Thursday with investors about whether Singapore might operate that way, Adelson described the high-end customers who’ve come to Singapore so far.

ADELSON: The ramp-up of the high end is going well, but it is (still) ramping up. We’re getting customers from places that we didn’t consider in our priority countries. We look at the breakdown of the (applications) for the credit and we find they’re coming from the main three areas: Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. And there are lots of very high rollers. Substantially higher … than we’ve experienced here in Las Vegas. We don’t get a lot of $10 million, $12 million credit players here, although we do get some.

Thanks To : BUSINESSWEEK

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