The Las Vegas Sands casino empire is shifting its revenue base to Macau as the gambling region dominated Las Vegas income by about four to one.

While Las Vegas slowly tries to begin recovery from the recession, Macau has already started to soar again. The growth of gambling revenues in the Chinese gaming province offset poor number in Las Vegas for Las Vegas Sands, allowing the company to equal analyst predictions on fourth-quarter earnings.

Profits adjusted for one-time items came to three cents a share, the amount most gaming experts had foreseen for the company. Macau was responsible for a whopping 80 percent of revenue in the quarter.

“Gaming volumes at Venetian Macau showed a healthy increase,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Karen Tang. The financial advisor noted that Sands should be the "biggest beneficiary of strong Chinese New Year visitor inflows into Macau," creating further promise for results in the current quarter.

Sands needed the good news from the Orient as it is particularly hard-hit in Las Vegas. The Venetian and its companion casino are designed to attract convention business and large groups, the most damaged aspect of Vegas tourism.

Las Vegas Sands stock rose dramatically on the news, but then quickly declined after the market as a whole dropped on the announcement by the Federal Reserve that it had raised the discount rate, a sign of credit tightening in the future.

Published on February 19, 2010 by VirginiaMaddox

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