Las Vegas Sands ends pursuit of IR development in Japan

In a press release issued Tuesday, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Las Vegas Sands announced the company will discontinue its pursuit of Integrated Resort (IR) development in Japan.

"My fondness for the Japanese culture and admiration for the country's strength as a tourism destination goes back more than 30 years to the days when I was operating COMDEX shows in Japan and I've always wanted our company to have a development opportunity there," Sheldon G. Adelson begins to explain in the statement. 

However, he then comments that "the framework around the development of an IR has made the casino developer and operator's goals in the Asian country unreachable."

As reported by Bloomberg, the terms of Japan's casino legislation were objected to by company management.

One objection is the fact that the license would only be good for 10 years, after which terms could be changed that would impact profit. Construction was estimated to take 5 years and with a 10-year concession would not be enough time for a good profit return.

By comparison, licenses in Macau and Singapore can be extended 20 or 30 years, respectively.

"We operate best-in-class properties in the leading markets in our industry and we are currently executing significant investment programs in both Macao and Singapore to create meaningful new growth from our existing portfolio," Adelson added.

"We also believe the success of the MICE-based Integrated Resort model we pioneered in Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore will ultimately be considered by other Asian countries, particularly as governments look to increase leisure and business tourism as a driver of economic growth," he concluded.