Las Vegas Sands Corp said Thursday it would look to further improve its positioning in Macau’s hyper-competitive premium mass gaming segment by developing new luxury suite product across its resort portfolio and hiring additional “customer-focused” team members.
The investment extends the commitment its Macau subsidiary Sands China Ltd made last year to adopt a more aggressive approach to customer reinvestment while reflecting the success of recent upgrade works at The Londoner Macao and The Plaza Macao.
In the company’s 1Q26 earnings call, LVS Chairman and CEO Patrick Dumont said work on new suite product had already begun at The Venetian Macao, with refreshed room products starting to come into service by 3Q26 and a “total product refresh” to be completed by the end of 2027.
LVS reported this morning a 23.6% year-on-year increase in net revenues to US$2.11 billion in Q1 as the impact of its heightened focus on player reinvestment takes effect.
“Today, the growth in the Macau market is primarily driven by the premium segment,” said Dumont. “The competition in that segment remains intense, and luxurious suite product coupled with outstanding service levels are critical to success.
“We are singularly focused today on matching that suite product with the service levels that the most discerning and valuable customers in Macau increasingly demand. We are making progress. We have immediately increased our gaming revenues, gaming volumes and premium customer patronage since implementing the recent changes to our reinvestment programs.
“Implementing meaningful improvements in the service pillar of our strategy in Macau will be critical to realizing additional growth and securing our long-term success. We believe we have outstanding opportunities for growth in every segment as we implement our strategies.
“Accordingly, we will be making targeted investments in training and hiring of additional customer-focused team members throughout the portfolio. Creating and delivering unique and memorable hospitality experiences is the centerpiece of our strategy, and improving service levels in Macau is critical to the achievement of our long-term financial and operating objectives.
“In addition, we plan to introduce refreshed and luxurious room suite products throughout the portfolio. As we further execute, we are focused on the highest return projects to increase cash flow over the next three years.”
Dumont said the meaningful growth in patrons the company has seen at The Londoner and The Plaza provided support for the value of such investments, adding that the company does not envision the next batch of upgrade works to create significant disruptions throughout the portfolio.
“The scale of our portfolio will allow us to serve customers in other properties and elsewhere in each resort while work is in progress,” he said.
Sands’ latest enhancement project will, Dumont conceded, place further pressure on margins in an environment that already faces structural margin pressure due to the competitive environment that such enhanced service levels have created.
However, the company expects to offset this via growth in revenue and cash flow, and long-term is targeting quarterly Macau EBITDA of US$700 million versus the US$633 million reported in Q1.
“We do expect margins to improve over time as we grow revenue in the lower end of the premium segment and in the non-premium segment, where the scale of our hotel inventory gives us natural advantages as we improve our service levels and further refine our reinvestment strategies,” Dumont said.
Grant Chum, Sands China’s CEO, President and Executive Director, added, “We are investing heavily in improving our service offerings across our operating capacity, across our salesforce distribution, and also into our hospitality and gaming service levels. Those initiatives are having an impact on the cost structure and will continue to impact the margin in the near term.
“At the same time, we are driving revenue growth, we’re achieving revenue share gains and over time we intend to grow margin as the revenue levels continue to increase.
“The market continues to be very competitive, so we have to continue to monitor the dynamics very carefully, but for this quarter we were able to achieve both revenue growth and sequential stabilization and improvement in our reinvestment strategy.”
In regard to its 1Q26 results, Chum noted that the company’s growth on the gaming side included a particularly strong performance in base mass – a segment that has lagged compared to the recovery trajectory of the premium segments post-COVID – including a 31% year-on-year and 10% quarter-on-quarter improvement in slot and ETG revenues.
But he also highlighted retail, in which Sands China hit an all-time high in tenant sales for the quarter – up 37% year-on-year.
“This was driven by the jewelry and watch sector [although] the spending was very broad across all of our malls,” Chum said. “We also saw significant growth in the fashion segment as well, so from the slot segment and from the retail mall, you can see that consumption is solid. But clearly for GGR, the premium segments are still driving the majority of the growth.”
