Adelson had a vision of Macao as "the Las Vegas of the East," Weidner testified. If that were to happen, Adelson's convention, hotel and casino experience plainly would be a plus in the competition for the three licenses, or concessions, that were to be offered in 2002.
A more crucial meeting was with Liu Qi, then the mayor of Beijing and head of its campaign to win the Olympics. Criticism of China's human rights record was threatening to derail the city's bid, which was scheduled for an IOC vote a week later.
Chief among the regime's concerns was a resolution in the House of Representatives urging U.S. Olympic officials to vote the bid down. Introduced by the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), it had 52 co-sponsors, including DeLay and 20 other Republicans.
"Can you help us with the Olympics?" Liu asked, according to Adelson's testimony. "Under the category of not leaving any friendship stone unturned," Adelson said, "I made a few calls."
One call was to DeLay, who said he personally favored the resolution. He also said he was about to confer with his fellow GOP House leaders. Three hours later, Weidner testified, DeLay called back to say that because of a logjam in the agenda, the Olympics resolution would be pushed off until after the IOC vote.
The thrust of his message, Weidner recalled, was: "You tell your mayor, it can be assured that this bill will never see the light of day."
No evidence at the trial established that DeLay or the GOP leadership in the Republican-dominated House moved the bill back to help Adelson. DeLay's representatives did not return calls this week.
Lantos took the floor on July 11, 2001 -- two days before the IOC vote -- to accuse then-Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Texas) of "bottling up this legislation."
During the trial, however, a DeLay spokeswoman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that House leadership killed the measure even before Adelson's phone call.
It is unclear whether the resolution, which was not binding on U.S. Olympic officials, would have wrecked Beijing's chances.
"Did the Chinese think that [Adelson] had been helpful in the Olympics? Yeah, I'm sure they did," defense attorney Rusty Hardin told the jury. "Did the Venetian people try to play on them thinking that? Of course, they did."
