CHAIRMAN, CEO and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Las Vegas Sands
CHAIRMAN, CEO and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Sands China
POWER SCORE: 2,478
POSITION LAST YEAR: 9
CLAIMS TO FAME
- Assumed global leadership in 2021 following passing of Sheldon Adelson
- Helped launch The Venetian Las Vegas
- Oversaw recent disposal of company’s Las Vegas assets
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS after first joining the company and six years after being officially groomed as heir apparent to company founder Sheldon Adelson, Robert Goldstein took the reins of arguably the world’s biggest casino operator in January of this year following Adelson’s passing from cancer.
Goldstein’s appointment as Chairman and CEO came as no surprise to anyone, highlighting the astute job he performed while filling in back in 2019, when Adelson took time off for medical treatment. It also put to bed any minor concerns over how control of the company might change things with Adelson’s widow, Dr Miriam Adelson, now in full control of around 57% of issued shares.
Sands’ new executive leadership duo of Goldstein alongside the Adelsons’ son-in-law Patrick Dumont, who has been promoted into Goldstein’s former role of President and COO, have wasted no time in shaping their own future for the company. In March, LVS announced that it had agreed a three-way deal to sell all of its Las Vegas Strip assets for US$6.25 billion, effectively ensuring it no longer has any physical operations in the United States. The deal included US$2.25 billion from funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc to acquire the LVS subsidiaries that hold the operating assets and liabilities of the Las Vegas business, and another US$4 billion from VICI Properties Inc for the real estate assets, including The Venetian Resort Las Vegas and Sands Expo and Convention Center.
LVS will maintain Las Vegas as its corporate base but turn much of its focus to Asia, home to its hugely profitable – in non-COVID times at least – integrated resorts in Macau and Singapore.
“Asia remains the backbone of this company and our developments in Macau and Singapore are the center of our attention. We will always look for ways to reinvest in our properties and those communities,” Goldstein said at the time. He later claimed LVS would happily invest another US$10 billion in Macau and would look at increasing its stake in its Macau subsidiary, Sands China.
Goldstein has also flagged investment in online gaming – presumably in America’s growing sports betting space – representing a significant breakaway from the staunch opposition of Adelson, who once claimed he would do “whatever it takes” to prevent the legalization of online poker. Other opportunities could await at home and abroad, with LVS known to be keeping an eye on casino legislation in New York and Texas and having previously expressed an interest in Thailand.
For the time being though, Goldstein – a man who was instrumental in making Adelson’s groundbreaking convention-led IR model a success – has shown he has no qualms taking the company in new directions.
For the full list of 2021 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
