It wasn’t a government-to-government deal. Rather, it was a promise by Sands executives that they’d use their behind-the-scenes influence on a few members of Congress. In mid-2001, Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson was trying to lock up one of the first three casino concessions in Macau. At the time, Macau’s casinos were a monopoly held by Stanley Ho, a shady character who’d dominated the Macanese skyline for decades.
Adelson’s visit to Beijing happened to coincide with two other major developments. China was angling for the 2008 Summer Olympics and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) was introducing a bill in the House of Representatives that would urge the International Olympic Committee (IOCC) to award the Olympics to another country, citing China’s dismal human-rights record.
According to Adelson’s testimony, at a meeting with the then-mayor of Beijing, Liu Qi, the CEO was asked to "help China win the Olympics." It’s not clear why Adelson was thought to wield such clout. Perhaps the casino developer, a major Republican donor, had been bragging on his influence within the GOP. Whatever the case, Adelson claims to have made a Fourth of July phone call to then-Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), lobbying him and a few other congressmen on the bill.
The Lantos resolution never came up for a vote and, on July 13, the IOCC conferred the 2008 summer games upon Beijing. Sands President William Weidner rang up Adelson’s Washington, D.C., PR firm, Patton Boggs. He suggested that they convey to the Chinese Embassy that his boss had been "involved in the process" by which Lantos’ bill had been killed.
The story must have indeed gotten around, because Weidner claims to have a tape recording of Stanley Ho telling yet another Sands executive, "That Olympic thing, I think you guys won the bid … That’s what I hear from my guys back in Beijing." And there the saga might have ended, were it not for a Chinese businessman, Richard Suen, who sued Sands after he thought he’d been gypped by the casino giant.
Since Seun’s litigation –- which came to trial last summer -- focused on the means by which Sands was able to penetrate the Chinese market, the Olympic quid pro quo resurfaced. Through a spokeswoman, now former Rep. DeLay hotly denied having been Adelson’s puppet. "Mr. DeLay was Whip at the time," his aide said. "The floor schedule is determined by the Majority Leader … Also, since it was a nonbinding resolution, it would have no impact on the law or any decision made regarding the Olympics."
That denial is less than airtight: DeLay could have made Adelson’s wishes known to then-Majority Leader Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) and a nonbinding congressional resolution still might have held some sway with the IOCC. But in a humiliating concession, Weidner admitted that he and Adelson had "played" Beijing, saying, "It became an urban legend that we created." That admission cannot have help relations between Sands and the Chinese government, which were quickly souring at the time of the 2008 trial.
Macau Gaming Commissioner for Legal Affairs Jorge Oliveira, an expert witness in the Suen's lawsuit, dismissed the notion that Beijing tipped the scales in Adelson’s direction. He said the capital had no input in Macau’s 2002 liberalization of its gambling industry and that fewer than 20 Chinese laws even applied to the "special administrative region."
The "urban-legend" remark comprised several damaging statements made by Weidner, who performed disastrously on the stand (Adelson did little better). Another was his concession that Suen had indeed acted as an intermediary between Sands and Beijing, but that Adelson didn’t pay Suen, because it "would have looked as if we had bribed someone for a license." Another infelicitous Weidner moment came when he said, "All Chinese look alike."
A Las Vegas jury awarded Suen nearly $44 million (plus interest), although the case is still on appeal. In a gesture that, to some, bespoke Sands’ arrogance, it told , it told investors it had not set any money aside for paying Suen, so confident it was that it would ultimately win the case. As for Weidner and Adelson, the trial marked the 'outing' of a rift that would make headlines when it was revealed that a special committee of Sands’ board of directors had been formed to mediate conflicts between the two men.
On March 4, 2009, Weidner was told by two board members that he would be replaced on April 1 by former Holiday Inn Worldwide President Michael Leven. Rather than waiting to be fired, Weidner quit the following Sunday. Adelson, meanwhile, must fend off Stanley Ho, who has been agitating to have Sands’ Macao casino businesses repatriated.
