Not having gotten his way regarding a Las Vegas stadium, Sheldon Adelson turned to the government of Singapore and can now announce 
a major success. He will build a new hotel, a “state of the art” arena and additional convention space, all to the tune of $3.3 billion. In return, Las Vegas Sands will assent to paying higher taxes and Singaporean casino patrons will be assessed a costlier entry fee. “The expansion will enable to LVS to grow via new investment in an attractive market, albeit with increased costs,” wrote JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff.
As part of the deal, Sands will pay a one-time $1.1 billion to City Hall, presumably for the needed acreage. Greff estimates that the expansion could be providing a 15% return on investment in five years’ 
time. Since his concession in Singapore will not be up for renewal until 2030, Adelson can expand with confidence. The projected hotel will have 1,000 rooms, while the stadium will be on the small side, seating 15,000. In return, Adelson gets extra casino square footage, 500 slot machines now and another 500 when the new tower opens. Sands has to be relieved that dealmaking is so much easier in Singapore than in Macao, especially when the Sands/Genting duopoly has been extended through 2030.
The entry fee for locals will escalate from $74 to $111, effective immediately. If you want a year-long pass, it’s going from $1,478 to 
$2,217. That’s a pretty pricey privilege. As for the tax hike, it’s rather elaborate, so I’ll let Greff explain it: “For premium mass, the current 5% tax rate will increase to 8% on [gross gaming revenue] up to $2.4b and 12% on any additional GGR; for mass, the current 15% tax rate will increase to 18% on GGR up to $3.1b and be 22% on any additional GGR.” Adelson is not one to throw good money after bad, so if he’s paying so much additional money in taxes and development costs you can be sure he’s run the numbers and likes what he sees.
* In the past year, Las Vegas has seen two fatalities in casino-related shootings. No one has suggested that the fundamental course of business be changed. Ditto states like Ohio and Florida that are cracking down on black-market casinos. There’s nothing like the 
underlying panic in Kosovo, where two robbery-related deaths in casino shootings have moved Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to ban casino gambling for 10 years. In a typical double-standard, the state-owned lottery will remain open. One of Haradinaj’s provocations was a set of raids on storefronts in which over 100 slot machines were confiscated. “It is total chaos, a total abuse and it is good that we are stopping this,” Haradinaj proclaimed. His actions will throw 4,000 people out of work in a country that is dirt-poor and has 33% unemployment. The Kosovo government’s action strikes as us—if you’ll pardon the term—overkill.
While Derek Stevens has been sucking all the PR air out of the room, Terry Caudill has been quietly at work over at Binion’s Gambling Hall. The formerly hotel-less casino is reopening the Hotel Apache and started taking reservations yesterday. This will give Caudill a new advantage (albeit with limited throw-weight: 81 rooms) when slugging it out with the other Downtown heavyweights. Here at Question of the Day, we’ve long been fielding queries about when the hotel would open and, although Caudill’s peeps broke a promise to tell us in advance, there are no hard feelings. As for marketing what is admittedly an outmoded hotel tower, “They’re really going to try to play up the haunted aspect of it so that’s kind of fun. The rooms are kind of small in a vintage way but I think there is a curiosity factor to it,” said VitalVegas‘ Scott Roeben, who is taking over from David G. Schwartz as the sage of Sin City.
