Las Vegas Sands Leaving Macao?
Las Vegas Sands Corp. is fighting an uphill battle to remain a viable entity on the Cotai strip. With the tanked world economy and the foot-dragging Chinese government's failure to issue the necessary land use permits the Las Vegas Sands could be looking at a forced exit from the Asia gambling enclave as early as August 2011.
Las Vegas Sands must complete the development of one of its parcels of land within the next 33 months or lose all of the company's holdings and investments in Macao. Unfortunately, this could include walking away from their major investment in the two completed projects, The Venetian Macao and the Four Seasons Macao, and forever being being banned from operating in Macao.
The recent Chinese government's decision to deny visas to many of the now wealthy Chinese citizens combined with the government's recent belief that gambling is contributing to the economic downturn makes the gambling resort business a losing proposition. It appears the once high flying Macao resort corridor has become enveloped in a cloud of doubt and financial despair.
Read the detailed story at BNET and go here for a copy of the Las Vegas Sands Corp latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
