Thailand’s cabinet approved a draft bill in mid-January that would legalize gambling in designated “entertainment complexes,” paving the way for casinos to be built in the Southeast Asian tourist hub.
If done right, the integrated resorts model—which has worked well for Singapore—could be a “game changer” for Thailand’s tourism industry and could even help the Southeast Asian country overtake every other gaming jurisdiction in the region, some analysts say.
Yet executives at Las Vegas Sands, which operates casinos like the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and the Venetian in Macau, don’t see Asia’s gaming sector as a zero-sum game even as more countries consider having their own casinos.
“Las Vegas must have 200 casinos. There are not 200 casinos in all of Asia,” CEO Robert Goldstein told analysts on a recent earnings call. “Four billion people in Asia are looking for a place to go.”
Las Vegas Sands executives dismissed concerns that new casinos in countries like Thailand will shrink the business. Goldstein said concerns about cannibalization are not “valid to think about.”
“Do people go back and forth between Bangkok and Singapore all the time? Absolutely. Is there an argument that it actually just strengthens our ecosystem because people have more choice within our environment? There’s an argument for that,” said Las Vegas Sands COO Patrick Dumont.
Singapore in particular has a “rarefied air” that attracts “the highest level of high-value tourism,” Dumont said.
Las Vegas Sands’ recent quarter
Las Vegas Sands, No. 387 on the Fortune 500, is one of a handful of companies on the list that makes almost all its revenue outside the U.S. It exited the U.S. market in 2021 to focus on its Asian operations: five resorts in the Chinese city of Macau and one in Singapore.
Shares closed 11% higher on Thursday after the casino operator reported strong results from its Singapore resort, and projected optimism about its operations in Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub.
Las Vegas Sands reported full-year revenue of $11.2 billion and net income of $1.4 billion, a 9% and 18% increase respectively.
Macau operations
Net revenue for its Macau operations declined 5% year on year to $1.77 billion, as operations were affected by renovations of two of its properties.
Mass gaming revenue for Macau as a whole was up 5% year on year to $6.2 billion. The company predicts gaming revenue is poised to grow, and that its upgrades put it in a good position for future growth.
“Gross gaming revenue in Macau should exceed $30 billion in 2025 and continue to grow. The scale and quality of the assets we’ve built are second to none, and our access position enables us to grow faster than the Macau market in every segment,” Goldstein said on the call.
Macau’s gaming operations have yet to recover to pre-COVID levels. The region generated gross gaming revenue of $28.1 billion last year, up 23.9% from the year before. The region generated gross gaming revenue of about $36.4 billion in 2019.
Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands
The company’s sole property in Singapore also continues to perform well. The Marina Bay Sands recorded net revenue of $1.14 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, up 7.2% year on year. Gaming revenue also reached $746 million for the quarter, up 28% year on year. Gaming was up 71% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic hit.
Looking ahead, Las Vegas Sands is counting on being able to keep attracting “high-value tourism” to the city-state and thinks a growing population of high-net-worth individuals plus continued investment in tourism infrastructure will complement its Singapore integrated resort.
“I think we’re just at the beginning of a huge growth surge in Singapore. It’s not going to end. We’re at the right place, right time, with right product,” Goldstein said.
