With a fortune of nearly US$ 39 billion and a company valued at more than US$ 60 billion, American billionaire Sheldon Adelson reaches age 84 with the ambition to further expand his business. If in recent years attention has been focused on Asia, it is now in Brazil that the owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) concentrates his chips. But before the intention can materialize in investments, it is necessary that the legislation changes to liberate the exploration of games of chance in Brazil.
“Brazil is a giant country that receives few tourists, only six million. We can expect (the appropriate legislation) to set up an integrated resort here. It is not just a casino, but the casino is important because it is the most profitable part of the business and subsidizes the other activities," Adelson told GLOBO on a recent visit to the country.
What he calls integrated resort is the business model that has become Adelson's flagship. It consists of having, in the same space, a large number of hotel rooms, convention center, show house, restaurants, malls and, of course, casinos. It was thanks to this model that Las Vegas became one of the main attraction points of major US conventions - some with more than one hundred thousand participants.
Adelson knows that the proximity of an election in Brazil hinders any approval of a change in the law. But he has a long - and controversial - experience with politicians. In the US he is known to have been the main donor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign and would have encouraged him to take controversial measures, such as the recent transfer of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The founder of LVS is interested in investing in a resort integrated in Brazil in places that have a good infrastructure of tourism, which includes hotel network, airports, good restaurants, nightclubs and local transportation to reach the convention centers. Rio and São Paulo concentrate attention, but he believes that Recife and Salvador can also meet these demands.
Last week, Adelson met with the mayor of Rio, Marcelo Crivella, and said that the politician wants to find ways to attract more tourists to the city, which annually receives about 1.5 million foreign visitors.
"He's worried about attracting more tourists. I've seen Rio as the entertainment capital. But it is not anymore. Rio needs something to revitalize," he said.
LEGALIZATION BACK TO AGENDA
However, any investment of LVS in Brazil depends on a regulatory framework that allows the exploration of games of chance and in a model that is not disseminated, that is, that can be restricted to certain places, such as the integrated resorts.
One of the projects for the legalization of gambling in Brazil has been underway in the Senate since 2014, but the text was rejected in the Constitution and Justice Commission in March. The other initiative is even older, from the 1990s, but has already received a series of amendments that disfigured it. However, in a time of fiscal tightening, the idea gains breath.
For three years the businessman has been studying the potential of the Brazilian market. Not even the fact that Brazil is a middle-income country is capable of driving away the entrepreneur. In his view, the consumption of the public with greater purchasing power ends up generating opportunities for lower-income groups. In addition, the integrated resort would also attract visitors from other countries, he says.
SINGAPORE AS A PARADIGM
As an example of viability, he cites the strong growth in the number of tourists in Singapore, where in 2010 he inaugurated the Marina Bay Sands complex - whose suspended infinity pool has become a tourist icon.
In 2009, Singapore received 9.7 million foreign visitors per year. Most of them were in transit to close business deals. The number of visitors jumped to 11.1 million in the year of the inauguration of Marina Bay Sands, which required an investment of US$ 5.6 billion. In 2017, the total reached 17.5 million - and the direct and indirect jobs of the complex amounted to 50 thousand.
The tourist spending also more than doubled in the period. In 2009, they were US$ 12.8 billion. Last year, foreigners left there more than US$ 27 billion. By having the exploitation of conventions as one of the pillars of this type of project, the integrated resort ends up attracting the business tourist, who spends more than leisure travelers.
In Macau, an administrative region of China, Adelson invested even more: US$ 12.2 billion, generating 75,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to LVS. They are six casinos and hotels with nine different brands. Still, Adelson claims that the gaming area occupies, on average, only 4% of its ventures.
Adelson's plans are to invest alone. According to him, he has never worked and does not intend to work with local partners.
“I do not need local partners,” he said. “We have enough money.”
Source: GMB / GS Noticias
