Legal Thai casino industry won’t cannibalize Singapore IRs, Las Vegas Sands insists

The issue of Thailand’s looming casino legislation was raised during the LVS 4Q24 earnings call on Thursday, with analysts asking management if they feared significant negative impact on its iconic Marina Bay property.

However, LVS insisted it holds no such concerns with President and COO Patrick Dumont describing Singapore and Thailand as “completely separate markets”.

“If you look at what we have in Singapore, it’s specifically tied to the highest level of high value tourism,” Dumont explained. “It’s rarified air when you look who’s in that environment, the type of consumption that’’ there and the type of business and leisure tourism that takes place. So I think Thailand is a completely separate market.

“There will be some overlap, inevitably, because people are going to want to see it on both sides, but as a practical matter given the population base, the visitation they have today and where people are coming from in terms of inbound tourism, [Thailand is] a separate and distinct opportunity and that’s how we see it.”

LVS, which also holds a controlling stake in Macau’s market leader Sands China, reiterated that it remains interested in Thailand as a future expansion prospect although the company has long maintained any final decision on whether to pursue a license will depend on the strength of the legislation.

Nevertheless, Dumont expressed his enthusiasm for what the emerging market could offer in a best-case scenario.

“Thailand is an unbelievable tourism destination,” he said. “It has very desirable attributes, great culture, great food and beautiful scenery. It’s a great place to visit and I think it has a great opportunity to add destination resorts and create a very large-scale industry there.

“The great news is there’s an enormous tourism base there already and it’s a separate thing from the people who go to Singapore. Is there going to be some overlap? Sure. Do people go back and forth between Bangkok and Singapore all the time? Absolutely. Is there an argument that it actually strengthens our ecosystem because people have more choice within our environment? There’s an argument for that, although I would say that they’re both different offerings.”

LVS Chairman and CEO Robert Goldstein reiterated Dumont’s view, insisting that the Asian gaming market as a whole remains largely untapped. “Sheldon Adelson (LVS founder) used to say he’d like to build a [Las Vegas] Strip in every Asian country. So, we will do very, very well in Singapore for years and years to come and make all kinds of money there, but Thailand is a very strong market.

“Again, Las Vegas has around 200 casinos and there aren’t 200 casinos in all of Asia, so the concern of it cannibalizing Singapore isn’t the way to think about it. There are 4 billion people in Asia looking for a place to go [which means] Thailand will do very, very well and so will Singapore.”