Years late to the party and with a long prior history of being antagonistic to the segment, Las Vegas Sands Corporation has reportedly abandoned its nascent efforts to carve out a niche in the legalized online-gambling space. News of the re-reversal of LVSands' corporate plans regarding online gambling arrived via a Nevada Independent report published yesterday by veteran gaming-beat writer Howard Stutz.
The Nevada Indy take discloses how Las Vegas Sands, which also operates the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas, had begun online-gambling initiatives less than 18 months ago, only a few months after the death of its former CEO, Sheldon Adelson, a strident online-gambling opponent. Signs of the company's faltering move toward legalized online gambling may have begun to emerge in December, when gaming-investment newsletter Earnings and More reported that Davis Catlin and David Williams, who had been brought on by Sands to lead its new digital-gaming efforts, had departed to found their own independent company.
The news of Catlin's and WIlliams's departure was followed by an Eilers & Krajcik newsletter update disclosing that Las Vegas Sands had pulled out of numerous partnerships that had been designed to carve out a toehold in the digital space, providing a more collective view of Sands' withdrawal from online-focused efforts and a retrenching, if by default, of its traditional focus on live-casino gaming. Including one online sportsbook project now seemingly abandoned, Las Vegas Sands may have sunk as much as $50 million into the failed effort.
Effect of Adelson's legacy unmeasured
The extent to which Sheldon Adelson's efforts to destroy legalized online-gambling remain unclear, though that some lingering effect existed is a certainty. Adelson, as chairman and CEO of LVSands, spent tens of millions of dollars on political efforts nationwide over more than a decade in an attempt to cripple online gambling's legalization, growth, and acceptance.
