Las Vegas Sands eyes Macau casino-hotels

HONG KONG -- U.S. gaming company Las Vegas Sands Inc. said it wants to build six more hotels, including some with casinos, in an area of the southern Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

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Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Macau casino in May and is building the Macau Venetian Casino Resort on the territory's reclaimed Cotai area, which the company has touted as the "Las Vegas Strip of Asia."

Now the gaming operator has proposed to Macau's government to build six more hotel resorts in Cotai, some of which will have casinos, Las Vegas Sands said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted Wednesday.

The company is seeking partners to finance and build the hotels and will only operate the casinos through subsidiaries, the filing said.

Hong Kong property group Far East Consortium International Ltd. signed on earlier this month to build one of the casino-hotels, Las Vegas Sands said.

That complex will house 2,000 rooms -- with a possible expansion to 3,000 rooms -- and a casino/showroom of about 140,000 sq. feet. It wasn't immediately clear how much the project will cost.

It is due to be completed within half of year of the Macau Venetian Casino Resort, which is currently slated for a 2007 opening.

Macau's gambling scene has seen new life as Las Vegas gaming operators set up shop in the territory after the local government ended a four-decade gaming monopoly held by tycoon Stanley Ho in 2002. Other than Las Vegas Sands, Las Vegas operator Steve Wynn is scheduled to open the Wynn Macau by the end of 2006.

Ho has responded with a bevy of new casino and theme park projects.

Thousands of Hong Kong and Chinese punters, who have no casinos at home, flock to Macau to gamble. The former Portuguese colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1999, is located 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Hong Kong.