HONG KONG - THE Chinese and Macau governments were partly to blame for Las Vegas Sands' decision to halt work on a huge casino project, the US gaming giant's president told a newspaper on Wednesday.
Sands announced last week that it would suspend building a 6,400-room resort in Macau as it faces difficulties in securing additional funds from banks for the US$3.7 billion (S$5.7 billion) resort project.
It said it would have to lay off up to 11,000 construction workers.
'There have been some changes in the (Chinese) central government's attitude towards Macau', Mr William Weidner told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
'We don't think it's necessarily all that prudent to put more money in (the project) until we see how that attitude works its way out'.
Mr Weidner also suggested Macau's policy missteps and lax regulation of the gaming industry shared the blame for projects being delayed or shelved, the report said.
'Macau, because of what has happened, has kind of created for itself unfinished or semi-finished projects. I don't think we're alone in not completing developments'.'
China has toughened visa policies for visitors from the mainland to Macau over the past few months in an effort to cool growth. The move resulted in a 10 per cent drop in the city's gaming revenues for the third quarter, according to Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Macau's chief executive Edmund Ho said last week that he would not ask Beijing to relax the visa requirements for mainlanders as the city's long-term economic growth should not be over-reliant on gambling revenues.
Las Vegas Sands' US-listed share price has fallen from around US$148 dollars last October to just US$8 dollars last week on worries about its heavy debt levels.
The group said last week it was halting some of its projects across the world because of problems accessing credit. -- AFP
