Sixty percent more hotel rooms. That’s what Sheldon Adelson says he needs at Marina Bay Sands and he hopes the government of Singapore will humor him and release the needed land. It’s greatly outperforming other hotels in the market. Last year it averaged 99% occupancy with ADRs of $396. The citywide average was 86% occupancy. So friend Adelson isn’t exaggerating when he says, “We are running at a 100 percent occupancy; on a bad day it’s 98 percent, no other hotel in the world runs like this except some in Vegas.” Same too when he calls Marina Bay Sands “a catalyst for enormous tourism growth.” (Genting Group‘s Resorts World Sentosa deserves some of that credit, too, but Adelson’s point is well taken.)
In the meantime, he has to dance attendance upon the Singaporean government and hope that is smiles upon his request for enough land to build 1,500 rooms. At least he’s stopped talking about dumping landfill into the harbor to fulfill his expansionist tendencies. (“Ecosystem” is not in Sheldon’s vocabulary.)
But what he desires in Singapore pales next to what he plans for Japan. Sands executives are talking about a megaresort that would have 200 rooms and exhibition halls. No wonder it will take until 2020 to be completed!
Genting was thwarted this week in Florida, where it had hoped to take Gulfstream Park‘s parimutuel license and transfer it to a 200-slot casino in Miami. Trouble was, such licenses can only be move intra-county and only a small portion of Gulfstream is in Miami-Dade County, lying mostly in Broward County. Regulators decided that Broward’s right to the license took priority and Genting was left empty-handed.
That screeching sound you heard from Florida was state Sen. Garrett Richter (R, left) decelerating the momentum of casino-expansion legislation, at the request of Gov. Rick Scott (R, below). The latter evidently feels he will have more leverage in compact negotiations with the Seminole Tribe if things quiet down in the Lege. Scott’s got a tricky balancing act to pull off. He needs to preserve or even increase $234 million/year in Seminole revenue-sharing. But if he doesn’t want to piss off benefactor Adelson, he’s got to find some way to negotiate the tribes out of their exclusive rights to baccarat, blackjack and chemin de fer. Also, legislators will have better visibility of what kind of new gaming they can legalize once the dust from compact talks has settled. As it is, the House and Senate are at odds. The former’s priority is to set up a regulatory framework for gambling in the Sunshine State. “[B]oth chambers propose creating an appointed oversight board with the power to regulate and control gaming in Florida” but the Senate legislation allows for two South Florida megaresorts.
Lawmakers may be emboldened by poll numbers that show that gaming expansion isn’t an election-year death wish. So long as it’s put to a statewide referendum, 61% of likely GOP voters would support destination casinos … and not just in the south. “But the governor has not indicated how far he is willing to take the talks. If he agrees to any expansion of gambling, the existing compact is null and void. But if the governor renews the compact, he may antagonize the powerful — and heavily financed — pari-mutuel industry and out-of-state casino giants, which could direct campaign contributions to his election-year opponents.”
Scott just needs to remember that, for every dollar he’s gotten from Adelson, the Seminoles have given him $2. That’s not advanced algebra.
