MACAU BUSINESS
In Madrid? Either on the city limits of Madrid or the
suburbs of Barcelona. We probably have 1,000 pages of research provided by different consulting firms to each aspect of the gaming and non-gaming amenities to see how that will work out.
Let me provoke you. Given the experiences
you had in Macau and Singapore, what will you try to avoid in Spain? You just put the finger on it. [We are trying]
to anticipate all the issues that can arise during the course of the development and try to resolve them upfront so there are no surprises and no changes. For instance, everything to do with labour:
the availability of labour, our ability to bring in if there is not enough Spanish labour – but our policy has always been local labour first –, the ability to deal with the unions, the ability to train the labour, things like that. Also, the moving around of tables. What
difference does it make if I take this table that is sitting here and move it over there? Currently, the government needs to approve
it. We are trying to convince the bureaucrats that there is no fundamental need or desire to wait two or three months to [get the approval to] move a table from this location to two metres away.
Aside from Spain, do you see any other place that you would like to invest? Yes. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand. I do not know about Thailand because the subject of legalisation goes off and on. There are rumours they will do it and there are rumours they won’t. I think it is much more serious in Korea, Japan, Vietnam. I do not know about Taiwan. Taiwan has been talking about the islands but nothing substantial regarding operators opening in Kinmen or Matsu.
Japan and Korea: would you enter alone
or would you like a local partner to go with? We like to invest alone unless we are required
passport but they do not know why. When you get down to some of the bureaucratic explanations, they say the European Union wants to prevent money laundering. We have to change the law. [It is
understandable] that when you go to the cashiers’ cage and you put out your cash to buy the chips or the tokens, you have to show your passport, rather than show it when you come in.
We cannot have 70,000 to 80,000 people a day coming to each property and showing their
28 DECEMBER 2011
passport. It is ridiculous. You are telling them to bring whatever
regulations they have, bring them now and not in the middle of an investment like happened in Macau? Right. We are anticipating everything that can go wrong and we are discussing with the government. The government is very supportive. They want this development because it could be over US$30 billion.
to invest with local partners. Learning curve
One and a half years after the opening of Marina Bay Sands, what would you do differently if you could? I would build more MICE space, more
exhibition space, more hotel rooms and more casino space.
Do you feel you are running out of space? That is correct. We are running almost 99 percent occupancy [rates] in the hotel.
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