Sands China could have some stateside problems. Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez is mulling whether or not to slap Sands’ wrist for tampering with evidence. The documents in question 
are part of a wrongful-termination lawsuit brought by former Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs, a case entering its hit sixth year. Gonzalez ordered that documents not be redacted but Sands, which often takes a high-handed attitude toward the judicial process, did it anyway, having hid the material in question for two years.
“We are here today because of a long series of misrepresentations,” said Jacobs’ attorney, Todd Bice, in support of the potential sanctions. Gonzalez also decreed the Macao Personal Data Protection Act irrelevant to the case. Sands General Counsel David Fleming countered that the company had no choice but to censor the documents, lest company officials get thrown into the calaboose by “furious” Macanese authorities: “At the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that I could not, under any circumstances, breach Macao law.”
The whole process didn’t come cheap. It cost Sands $2.4 million to comb through 7,900 pages of material and censor it. Citing the financial resources arrayed against his client, Bice lamented, “They will spend us all into the grave.”
* In Las Vegas Sands news, the company has found a successor to Venelazzo President 
John Caparella (another example of the high executive turnover at Sands). The usual corporate euphemism for a sudden or involuntary departure — “to pursue other opportunities” (like the opportunity to file for unemployment) — was deployed to explain Caparella’s departure. Sands reached out the Atlantis casino-resort in the Bahamas to pluck George Markantonis (right) from the CEO’s chair and install him on the Strip. The Westin veteran isn’t short on casino experience either, having held two vice presidencies at Caesars Palace, now one of his new adversaries.
* Caesars Entertainment‘s bankruptcy plan is official and it’s mostly what we anticipated. First-tier creditors will own all of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. and 70% of 
the property-owner subsidiary, which securitizes them — at least to a degree, considering how low Caesars values its assets. Second-tier creditors get 30% of the property company, a much larger crumb than expected. In a new development, a $750 million debtor is suing Caesars for reimbursement plus damages. The case will hinge on whether Caesars’ removal of debt guarantees is deemed proper or not.
CEO Gary Loveman sounded as out of touch as ever when he called slot machines “antiquated” … remember, this is the man who dissed casinos as “boxes of slots” that depreciate rapidly but who keeps building more of them. There has, however, been a lot of talk lately about incorporating game-of-skill elements into slot machines, making them more attractive to video gamers of today. International Game Technology is held out as one example of a company that’s moving with the times, leveraging games like Wheel of Fortune over multiple content platforms — slots, the Web, lotteries and social games. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have such a powerful brand name to act the leading edge of your marketing push.
