Don’t ever accuse Las Vegas Sands of not thinking big. It’s going to the banks for a $5.9 billion loan, primarily for expansion of Marina Bay Sands. That shouldn’t be much of a risk for financiers because nobody makes good on huge 
financial commitments quite so much as Sheldon Adelson. Sands will scrape together the money from a quartet of banks, the first time in seven years that Marina Bay Sands has needed new underwriting. Still, one banker warned, “The borrower has not raised such a size before and it is also unprecedented for the market in Singapore.” Adelson’s last big loan was for $5.1 billion and it took 28 lenders to pull that one off. The maturity on that debt (of which $4 billion remains) has been been pushed out to 1Q20. One Chinese banker was enthusiastic, saying “We are keen to participate. There’s no issue for us to join a casino deal, and take large take-and-hold positions in the sector.” Still another bank offered, “As much as the credit is attractive, there’s a known restriction in terms of liquidity from the market towards the casino sector.”
Sheldon is keeping up with the Joneses, or rather with Genting Group, which has verbally committed $3.3 billion to upgrading Resorts World Sentosa but hasn’t started rattling its tin cup yet. Singapore is obviously a priority for Sands, which has welcomed 330 million guests to its iconic resort and seen Marina Bay Sands generate nearly 30% of annual cash flow all by its lonesome. It’s so lucrative that Sands was able to keep refinancing it even when the Great Recession caused other company projects in Las Vegas and Macao to grind to a halt.
* Encore Boston Harbor isn’t open yet and already parking has been an issue. In fact, casino President Robert De Salvio wants players to hop on the much-maligned ‘T’ or other forms of mass transit when making Encore their destination. Shuttle buses are also being deployed to offsite parking lots to make the Encore experience as painless as possible. “People really should think about the water taxi service if you’re coming in from Boston, using the buses,” added Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria.
* Can you imagine a casino trying to make less money? That’s essentially what’s happening at Kangwon Land, majority-owned by the government of South Korea. The latter equates boffo business with gambling addiction, so the 
less revenue the better. Even so, Kangwon Land is doing well—$1.2 billion last year. If you watched last year’s Winter Olympics, you got a good glimpse of the territory around the casino. (Not that the Olympics juiced casino visitation.) Kangwon Land has downsized from 200 table games to 180 and further palliates the government by operating many fewer than that.
The resort complex covers 4.5 square miles, and includes South Korea’s highest golf course and a water park. Among the coming attractions are a luge run and a museum showcase the area’s coalmining past. Although it’s the only casino where South Koreans gamble, it entails a three-hour drive for most—less time than it would take to fly to Vladivostok, or to Japanese casinos when that country eventually gets around to building them. Of Japan, Muhammad Cohen warns, “without proximity to an international airport, it will be difficult for the IR to boost foreign tourism, one of the Japanese government’s key goal for its casino legalization initiative.” Well said.
* With Pennsylvania sports books still offline (and SugarHouse Casino only four days out of the beta-testing phase) handle for May was chump change. Rivers Casino and SugarHouse tied for first with $8 million, followed by Parx Casino with $7 million. Further back were Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race course, 
retaining $4 million, Valley Forge‘s FanDuel sports book with $3 million, Valley Forge’s proprietary sports book with $1.5 million, Harrah’s Philadelphia with $2.5 million and Greenwood Racing‘s South Philadelphia Race & Sportsbook, which clung to $3 million. One thing slowing the online launch is an Apple requirement that betting applications be written in code native to iOS. Said PlayPennsylvania.com analyst Dustin Gouker, “The Apple policy change has not only limited access to SugarHouse Casino’s online product, it has also significantly slowed the launch of other online sports betting products in the state.”
