Sands set to launch their $4.4 billion complex

SHELDON Adelson is set to unveil his latest and anticipated $4.4 billion complex in Macau today. After a long delay within the world’s biggest gambling market, Sands China Ltd. is opening the doors to the Sands Cotai Central with a high-wire tightrope performance and the unveiling of a 2,500 kilogram (5,500 pound) bronze and gold “God of Fortune” statue.

It is the 35^th casino to open in Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal. The resort will open in stages, with the first phase featuring 340 gaming tables and 40 VIP rooms for high-rollers. Another 200 tables will be added later this year.

Macau’s gambling revenues rose 27 percent in the first three months of 2012, after rocketing 42 percent last year to $33.5 billion, more than five times the amount earned by Las Vegas Strip casinos.

Any further casinos are not expected until 2015 because of the time needed for government approval and construction.

Sands China’s next project will be a 3,600-room resort on a nearby plot for which it is currently seeking planning approval, said Adelson, chairman of both Sands China and U.S.-based parent Las Vegas Sands Corp.

“We hope to move some dirt around, (do some) compacting of the earth, and put in pilings by the end of this year,” said Adelson. Construction would take 24 to 30 months, he said.