LVS president: Macau will recover before Vegas

Robert Goldstein expects the resumption of the IVS scheme for Chinese tourists late in the summer or fall.

Macau.- Robert Goldstein, president of the American gaming giant, Las Vegas Sands (LVS), has outlined the company’s plan to recover from the Covid-19 hit on finances.

Goldstein has said he expects Las Vegas to continue to struggle financially until something changes the public’s perception on the virus.

Casinos in Las Vegas began reopening in June, but as Goldstein says, the city depends heavily on tourism.  

He said LVS is expecting its Macau business to recover first. Its Macau and Singapore resorts generate about 90 per cent of the group’s EBITDA, and obtain 60 per cent of their revenue from Chinese tourists.

Goldstein welcomed the fact that mainland China will resume issuing business, study and government related visas to travel to Macau on August 12 but said the IVS scheme was needed to see significant change news.

He said: “It’s a step in the right direction, but not the step.” To him, the main change will occur when the individual visas scheme (IVS), which a tourism travelling permits, is operational again.

He believes the IVS will begin issuing travel authorisations for Chinese tourists “in the course of the summer or fall.”

He added: “It will be slow. It will not be large steps. It will be a series of small steps leading to a full-scale IVS opening both for Guangdong and all of China at some point.”

He also said he expected Macau to recover more quickly because Chinese players and guests would not be so averse to using face masks and gloves inside casinos as some American players have been.