Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN MAR 2021 26 Rob Goldstein, the long-time Las Vegas Sands President and COO who replaced Adelson as Chairman and CEO in January, certainly thinks so. “We had Sands Cotai Central for years and it was not a great product. It didn’t deliver,” he told analysts during the company’s 3Q20 earnings call last year. And yet, for a property that didn’t deliver, Sands Cotai Central was still Macau’s fourth most successful IR by total EBITDA at the end of 2019 – behind only Galaxy Macau, The Venetian Macao and City of Dreams – with Adjusted Property EBITDA of US$180 million and net revenues of US$505 million in 4Q19. “Sands Cotai Central is some eight years old now, but you can’t go beyond the fact that it was generating about HK$5 billion in revenues per quarter and HK$1.5 billion inEBITDAper quarter in 2019,” observes Clayton. “I think the strategy is right to upgrade the product and rebrand the property, but it was already a performing business and far outperforming The Parisian (with Adjusted Property EBITDA of US$122 million and net revenues of US$401 million in 4Q19 – placing it seventh among Macau’s IRs behind both Wynn properties). “The Londoner is costing the better part of US$2 billion, and that will call for a return on investment over and above the investment they had previously made on SCC, so the challenge for Sands is how do they make these thematic worlds really work for them?” Where Sands Cotai Central undoubtedly fell short was on the gaming floor. Although it ranked fourth among all Macau casinos for both mass table GGR COVER STORY The Londoner Macao’s British-themed all-day restaurant, Churchill’s Table. ザ・ロンドナー・マカオにある英国風オールデイダイニングレストラン「Churchill’s Table」