Sheldon Adelson must have great and abiding faith in the American legal system … at least some of the time. He’s counting on it to cover his butt over in Macao, where erstwhile partners Asian American Entertainment have filed suit against Las Vegas Sands, more fallout from the company’s promiscuous dalliance with Chinese business interests. This is at least the third lawsuit dogging the Doge of Venelazzo. He lost a round to former go-between Richard Suen, but that verdict’s been sent back for retrial. Sands also paid $42.5 million to be rid of a trio of Macanese businessmen who were suing the company. Giving Adelson’s carnivorous appetite for litigation, that threesome must have had him dead to rights. Settling out of court has never been his style.
Asian American pursued the U.S. version of its case in desultory fashion, getting thrown out of court in ’09 for not even bothering to 
retain appellate lawyers. Now, after an inexplicable three-year hiatus, the lawsuit turns up in a Macao courtroom. Perhaps lead plaintiff Marshall Hao is taking a page from Adelson’s book: Sue in whatever jurisdiction is most convenient. Now, Sheldon is trying to use Yankee courts to throw a monkey wrench into Chinese ones, even pleading poverty. (“Las Vegas Sands is already bearing the costs and other burdens of re-litigation in Macau.”)
Sands accuses Hao of using the Macanese courts for an end-around, not the sort of reasoning that ever stopped it from making similar sidesteps of its own. Ironically, five years ago Adelson was complaining that Nevada courts lacked jurisdiction over Hao’s suit. Now they do and Macao doesn’t, evidently. Sheldon’s never let a little thing like intellectual consistency stand in his way.
Adelson’s mass-market-based business model in Asia stands him in good stead with Wall Street, which is looking more than guardedly optimistic on gaming stocks … at least those with a foothold in the Pacific Rim. Analysts are cool toward Boyd Gaming and have been burned too many years a row by Isle of Capri Casinos to buy into the comeback narrative just yet. Penn National Gaming‘s growth story and steady rate of return are just the things The Street likes to see. Despite MGM Resort International‘s morass of debt, analysts see it holding its ground on the Las Vegas Strip and are untroubled by a projected year-end loss. Wynn Resorts is liked — but not as much as Macao-centric Melco Crown Entertainment, which is predicted to outgrow its competitors. And only Sands is given credit in advance for expected casino legalization in Japan and elsewhere, making it the darling of the stock market. It’s days like this that you’re tempted to feel sorry for Steve Wynn, just a little.
Let’s all remember what Harry Reid did to get City Center opened, because if he had failed to get that heavy-lift from the banks and Dubai, who knows what would be today’s Las Vegas news. It was an intersection of ideology versus jobs all played out on a minefield. Sharron Angle tried her best to add to the Las Vegas misery, because she felt it furthered her career interests. One could compare this to the auto bailout, where it took guts to stick your neck out against constant flack.
Yes, thank Reid for helping City Center survive. But let’s also remember what Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Carter, Clinton, and others did that helped produce the housing bubble and the collapse that precipitated the recession, and to the current President and his Dem House and Senate whose policies have nearly bankrupted this country, presided over the loss of 5 million jobs, and produced the slowest recovery in history. Their policies are the primary cause of those unfinished derelicts along the LV Strip and elsewhere in the U.S. today. To be fair, the Republican politicians had their part to play in these failures, too. It’s not going to get much better for a long time until we replace all those who do not understand how this country is supposed to work.