Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

They're spinning these numbers as great - and no question The Venetian really had a strong quarter... But I've seen a couple stories on the AP Wire talk about the Sands Macau being a bit disappointing this quarter.

Not sure how to take that but I'm sure someone will say that Wynn Macau opening took a bigger chunk than Sheldy wanted to admit.

The numbers that I (and I think everyone else) am waiting for are WYNN's, for obvious reasons. I fully expected LVS to have a good to great quarter - they always do - they are a well run company and Weidner is a pro.

In a strange way I kinda expected Sands to be relatively flat in the Q4 2005 / Q4 2006 comparison. Yes, they've added a few tables during 2006, but those tables are on one of the upper floors at the Sands - so punters are faced with an annoying squeeze through the heaving, smoking crowd on the main gambling floor to get to the less busy areas upstairs (which can be a very tight squeeze at times). The Sands always seems to be bursting at the seams whenever I am there and the building itself hasn't increased in size, so I don't think they could have realistically expected to see more people cram themselves in when those people now have the option of heading just down the road to Starworld and Wynn where there is more room to move.

With so many other new and more appealing venues opening up over the next couple of years, I think its fair to assume that the Sands' high water mark for profits may now be in the past. They will still catch a lot of the ferry passengers purely because of the location, but I'm sure they'll be quite happy if most of the traffic by-passes the peninsula and heads straight to Cotai.

Well yes, LVS will have the biggest presence in Cotai for awhile. Earlier someone here expressed skepticism about the prospects for convention business but it sounds like they're already pushing that for Venetian Cotai. (I'm wondering Chris, just how much room is left there for competitors, after all the LVS projects get built?)

The reports said Venetian had a good qtr at the tables, a lucky streak as it were, to which one analyst said they'll have to pay the piper at some point. Well it propped them up a bit, but who's to say they'll suffer a drop in gaming just because of that? That was a weird remark. Adelson seemed to think they're holding up against the new competition in Macau, and it's odd the analysts seemed to underestimate the impact.

Posted by detroit1051

Hunter, yes, LVS is spinning the numbers, but that goes with the territory. One stat that I thought was amazing was the 36% Table Hold in Las Vegas compared to normal 21%. LVS was very, very lucky. However, even with normal Hold, they would have had a great Quarter. Imo, LVS will gradually rebuild Venetian to make it closer in quality to Palazzo, sort of like what MGM did with MGM Grand over a period of years.
I agree, we need to see WYNN's numbers.
MGM Mirage's results and Call will be Feb 14.

Detroit: We are ALL waiting with bated breath, including Wall Street + many institutional investors alike, for WYNN's Q4 numbers report. There is no question that it is the individual investors who are "banking" on the Wynn Macau operation to report exceptionally positive earnings rusults for Q4 + they are the ones responsible for the recent run-up, otherwise the stock would not currently be trading at the overvalued 110-112 per share price.