Sands CEO Says Macau Faces Near-Term Hurdles, Bullish Long-Term

• Says macroeconomic factors weighing on visitor spending
• Online gaming, junket market woes have played roles, too
• He’s still bullish on Macau long-term

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) CEO Robert Goldstein said a variety of macroeconomic factors are hindering gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Macau — the operator’s largest market — though he remains bullish on the Chinese territory long-term.

Speaking at Bernstein’s 41st Annual Strategic Decisions Conference Thursday, Goldstein post-coronavirus GGR in the special administrative region (SAR) appears to have plateaued around $28 billion per year even though visitation to the casino hub has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. He noted visitation previously was a strong indicator of consumer spending in Macau, but customers’ spending habits have changed.

We had, I had, a false belief a couple of years ago that Macau would just keep moving up into the 30s (billions of dollars) and beyond and I think it’s a couple of factors,” said the Sands chief executive. “They include consumer sentiment — obviously global economic issues and tariffs don’t help — but there are other factors too.”

He mentioned the ongoing US/China trade spat as one factor weighing on visitors’ spending habits in Macau this year. Shares of Sands, the largest Macau operator, are off nearly 20% year-to-date, though analysts say there’s no evidence of bettors preferring Asian operators over the three US-based concessionaires. There’s also belief that the three US firms doing business in Macau are not at high risk of facing retaliatory tariffs.

Junket Crackdown, Online Betting May Be Weighing on Macau

Goldstein also mentioned the proliferation of online wagering in Asia, much of it illicit, and major pruning of Macau’s junket industry as factors that could be weighing on GGR growth there.

“We can’t determine how much is tied to online gambling in Asia and if for whatever reason you want to assign that to Macau, which has definitely stalled out and it’s not where it was pre-COVID,” he said at the Bernstein conference. “The demise of the junket segment didn’t help either and of course competition is fierce there.”

In November 2021, Suncity Group boss Alvin Chau was arrested and later sentenced to 18 years in prison after he was found guilty of fraud, illegal gambling, and criminal association – marking a de facto death for the old iteration of Macau’s junket industry. Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has capped the number of junket licenses at 50, well below the level of 235 seen in 2013.

Goldstein Remains Constructive on Macau

In 2019, the year before the coronavirus crisis, Macau GGR came in at $36.5 billion and those heights have yet to be revisited, but Goldstein believes that over the long-term, the Asian casino hub will return to $32 billion to $34 billion in GGR and perhaps exceed $35 billion.

Sands has made significant investments in the SAR where it runs five integrated resorts aimed at bolstering earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). Those expenditures could pay dividends over the long-term, particularly if US/China tensions ease.

“The world is in an awkward place right now and there is confusion about the bilateral relationship between China and the US, there’s confusion about the tariffs, there’s confusion about China’s trajectory. It’s not an easy place to navigate,” concluded Goldstein.