Sands Head Sheldon Adelson Furious With MGM, Caesar’s Driving Vegas Room Rates Down

During a quarterly earnings conference call this week, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson blasted MGM and Caesar's Entertainment for driving down hotel room rates on the Strip and, thus, cutting into his own company's profit margins.

Adelson accused both casinos of conducting business out of desperation due to some excessive debt. 

Caesars owes some $23.7 billion while MGM Resorts is in a $13.1 billion hole.

“I don’t necessarily blame them,” Adelson said in regard to the hotel room rate slashing. “I suppose if I were in that position, I might do the same thing.”

From Pokerati.com:

In an interview following MGM Resorts’ quarterly earnings conference call last week, Murren, MGM’s chairman and CEO, said his company and Caesars have a better understanding of how Las Vegas works these days than Adelson does. Las Vegas Sands drew 86 percent of its quarterly revenue from Asia.

MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment together control 20 Strip-area hotel-casinos and nongaming hotels that encompass more than 64,000 rooms. Combined they have more than 77,000 employees in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Sands has two Strip resorts with 7,000 rooms and 9,400 employees.

In recent months, Adelson has gone on the offensive against legalized Web gambling in the United States. 

He is among the only casino operators who opposes federal legislation.  Adelson is also one of the Republican party’s biggest donors.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com