Look out Paris”•Macau has its very own Eiffel Tower.
Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Parisian resort, Sheldon Adelson’s $2.9-billion bet on the world’s largest gambling hub, opened Tuesday featuring a half-size replica of the iconic French landmark, a glitzy shopping mall, a water theme park and other family-friendly facilities.
With the project, the 83-year-old billionaire is doubling down on Macau with his model of mixing Las Vegas-inspired entertainment and leisure with gambling, as the Chinese city attempts to evolve from a gritty destination focused on high-stakes gamblers from mainland China. Macau’s casino industry is seeing the first glimmer of a recovery, boosted by mainstream gamblers and tourists after a 26-month slump that saw high-end players avoiding the city amid China’s crackdown on corruption.
“We have fairly high expectations for Parisian to be the most likely property to grow the market,” said Union Gaming Group LLC analyst Grant Govertsen. “Sands China does a better job than the peers in delivering what mass-market consumers wants, and Parisian should hit a sweet spot given the Chinese affinity for Europe in general, and Paris specifically.”
In anticipation of a recovery, Las Vegas Sands and its Macau unit Sands China Ltd. have both surged about 30 percent so far this year through Monday, outperforming their peers’ 18 percent rise according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Macau gaming index. Sands China fell as much as 2.8 percent to HK$33.50 in Hong Kong trading Tuesday.
While Adelson and fellow Vegas veteran, MGM Resorts International chief executive officer James Murren, have been bullish on Macau and declared the city’s gambling recovery is underway, the chairman of Macau’s largest casino operator is calling for caution. There needs to be sustained growth, with greater focus on mainstream gamblers, Hong Kong billionaire Lui Che-Woo of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. said in an interview this month.
Targeting mainstream players, with families and children in tow, is one of Adelson’s forte. The Las Vegas tycoon’s foray into Macau began with the opening of the Venetian in 2007, and Sands China has since grown to be the market leader in the mass-market gambling segment, which has been less hurt by Beijing’s crackdown.
With 3,000 guest rooms and suites, the Parisian plans to attract families with a themed water park, a kids play area modeled after France’s Luxembourg Gardens and a shopping mall with artists and street performers.
While Sands China is heeding the government’s call to tone down on catering to hard-core VIP players, its newest project will need to cope with fewer new gambling tables than some competitors. Macau’s gaming regulator this month authorized 150 new tables for the casino, including 100 for opening day, compared with the 250 that Galaxy and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. each received for new projects last year.
