Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino behemoth run by Republican fundraiser and billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is facing criticism for its operations in Spain and Macau. The gambling company recently acknowledged it is likely that in Macau it violated the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an American law best known for banning bribery of foreign officials, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It was the first time the company disclosed it was under investigation by the SEC. In Spain, advocacy groups are protesting Las Vegas Sands' plans to build a giant 1,850-acre casino outside Madrid.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino behemoth run by Republican fundraiser and billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is facing criticism for its operations in Spain and Macau. The gambling company recently acknowledged it is likely that in Macau it violated the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an American law best known for banning bribery of foreign officials, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It was the first time the company disclosed it was under investigation by the SEC. In Spain, advocacy groups are protesting Las Vegas Sands' plans to build a giant 1,850-acre casino outside Madrid.

The Las Vegas casino company headed by high-profile Republican donor and billionaire Sheldon Adelson said it probably violated a federal law that prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials. Las Vegas Sands Corp. said its auditors found that "there were likely violations" of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars Americans from bribing foreign officials to secure an advantage. The disclosure was made in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Las Vegas casino company headed by high-profile Republican donor and billionaire Sheldon Adelson said it probably violated a federal law that prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials. Las Vegas Sands Corp. said its auditors found that "there were likely violations" of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars Americans from bribing foreign officials to secure an advantage. The disclosure was made in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. has priced a public offering of 181.8 million common shares at $5.50 each in a move to raise $1 billion. It also is selling preferred stock and warrants to the family of Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson, as the troubled casino operator struggles to avoid defaulting on $5.2 billion worth of debt. In addition, the Las Vegas company is selling nearly 5.2 million preferred shares and warrants to buy 86.6 million common shares at $6 each. A unit of one preferred share and one warrant to purchase about 16.7 common shares is priced at $100 each.

Over the last 23 years Sheldon Adelson has built Las Vegas Sands Corp. into the world's largest casino company — bigger than the next 10 competitors combined. He's done it without having a single one of his 40,000 workers in Las Vegas, Asia and Bethlehem, Pa., join a labor union. Now a band of security guards making $13 an hour may be on the verge of ending the world's 14th-richest person's winning streak. The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to begin bargaining with its 130 security guards as a labor union.

The owner of the Venetian and Palazzo resorts is planning a convention center that could open by 2010, cost about $680 million and offer as many as 7,000 hotel rooms. Las Vegas Sands Corp. said it had filed plans with Clark County to build a 1.2-million-square-foot facility. The facility would be an upgrade from the existing convention center, which opened in 1990, and could give Las Vegas Sands room to build more hotel rooms on one of the priciest pieces of Las Vegas Strip real estate.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., owner of the Venetian casino in Las Vegas and the Sands Macao, said first-quarter profit fell 86% because of refinancing costs. Net income declined to $7.1 million, or 2 cents a share, from $49.9 million, or 15 cents, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 69% to $403.8 million, the Las Vegas-based company said.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. won a hotly contested license to build Singapore's first casino, which could be the world's costliest casino-resort project by the time it opens in 2009. Singapore last year reversed its decades-old ban on casino gambling. Las Vegas Sands was selected for a license to build at Marina Bay over three other bidding groups -- MGM Mirage and CapitaLand Ltd.; Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Keppel Land Ltd.; and Genting International and Star Cruises Ltd. The project, on a 50.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., owner of the Venetian Casino Resort in Las Vegas and the Sands Macau in China's former Portuguese enclave, raised $690 million on Tuesday in the biggest initial public offering by a U.S. gaming company. Shares will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol LVS. The company sold 24 million shares at $29 each, compared with a projected price range of $24 to $26, according to bankers involved in the sale.

It is only fitting that the Right Online conference, a project of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, should hold its conference for political bloggers in the Sands Expo, a huge meeting and convention facility next to The Venetian hotel casino here on The Strip. After all, the corporation that owns both entities, Las Vegas Sands, is owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a Republican who has turned the 2012 presidential campaign into something of a personal sandbox. “I know the left hates guys like Sheldon Adelson and David Koch,” Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips said as he welcomed the bloggers Friday to their two-day conference, which he said was designed as a counterpoint to the left's Netroots Nation gatherings.

Over the last 23 years Sheldon Adelson has built Las Vegas Sands Corp. into the world's largest casino company — bigger than the next 10 competitors combined. He's done it without having a single one of his 40,000 workers in Las Vegas, Asia and Bethlehem, Pa., join a labor union. Now a band of security guards making $13 an hour may be on the verge of ending the world's 14th-richest person's winning streak. The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to begin bargaining with its 130 security guards as a labor union.

On a Strip packed with colorful, sometimes controversial gambling titans, Sheldon Adelson plays politics a little differently from the rest. The casino barons are a mostly pragmatic bunch, shifting campaign donations to favor the party in power. Not Adelson, the chief executive of Las Vegas Sands, whose family almost single-handedly funded the revival of Newt Gingrich's Republican presidential bid. Other executives may have sidestepped the risk of becoming campaign fodder. Adelson thrust himself into the race last month when he and his wife gave $10 million to a "super PAC" supporting Gingrich.

Casino companies Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp. each say they have amended their debt agreements to get more breathing room as they repay billions of dollars. Wynn Resorts said its new agreement waived certain covenants until June 2011 and extended to July 2013 the maturity on $610 million of its remaining $697 million in revolving credit. The Las Vegas company said that in exchange it had agreed to a higher overall rate on the debt. Las Vegas Sands said in a regulatory filing that the new agreement it reached with lenders would let it buy back up to $800 million in debt.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Monday that doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern were removed after the completion of an offering of common stock, preferred stock and warrants provided about $2.1 billion of additional capital. The Las Vegas-based casino operator's independent accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the actions taken Friday helped to erase worries about the company's ability to continue to operate.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. has priced a public offering of 181.8 million common shares at $5.50 each in a move to raise $1 billion. It also is selling preferred stock and warrants to the family of Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson, as the troubled casino operator struggles to avoid defaulting on $5.2 billion worth of debt. In addition, the Las Vegas company is selling nearly 5.2 million preferred shares and warrants to buy 86.6 million common shares at $6 each. A unit of one preferred share and one warrant to purchase about 16.7 common shares is priced at $100 each.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., billionaire Sheldon Adelson's casino company, said Thursday that it might default on debt and face bankruptcy. The casino owner, which had $8.8 billion in long-term debt at the end of June, said in a regulatory filing that it probably wouldn't meet the requirements of loans arranged by Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. unless it cut spending on developments, boosted earnings at its casinos and raised more capital.