Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Chairman and CEO Patrick Dumont has called on the United States and China to sort out their differences and start working together, describing better exchanges as mutually beneficial to the global economy.
His comments formed part of an interview with global news agency Bloomberg in Macau last week, where Dumont had been attending the NBA China Games hosted by LVS subsidiary Sands China at the Venetian Arena. Dumont is also Chairman of Sands China.
Asked how he viewed relations between the two world powers, given his company’s considerable investments in Macau, Dumont said, “I think the key thing is the two largest economies in the world will only benefit by finding better ways to work together and invest with each other to create mutually beneficial outcomes.
“The economies of both countries can benefit from better relations, more investment, better exchange. And so, in the long run, hopefully that will continue and we’ll be the beneficiaries of that because tourism is a great industry and it brings people together.”
Expanding on the company’s investments, Dumont reiterated his commitment to the Macau market, where Sands China has completed its transformation of The Londoner Macao and recently announced a comprehensive upgrade program for The Venetian Macao. LVS is also in the midst of an US$8 billion expansion of its Singapore integrated resort, Marina Bay Sands, due for completion in 2030.
“Investing in Macau is something that we look forward to,” Dumont explained.
“We’re very excited about our non-gaming investments here. We feel in the long run they’ll create a lot of value for shareholders, create new experiences that create repeat visitation and bring more visitors from farther away into Macau.
“In Singapore, we think that’s an extraordinary market. We just broke ground last July on [the MBS expansion] and that’s going to be really special because it has a 15,000-seat live performance venue that we think will be the most technologically advanced in Asia. We’re very excited about it.
“Our goal is [for the new MBS tower] to be the best hotel in the world and have very unique experiences there for guests and for the public in Singapore. And that’s another thing that will differentiate us in the long run.”
Dumont clarified, when asked about prediction markets, that LVS has no intention of exploring the space or moving away from its focus on land-based tourism. However, he noted that artificial intelligence is a different matter altogether, with LVS viewing the technology as an effective means of improving the way it does business moving forward.
“I think it’s transforming the way we do business,” he said. “It helps us in a lot of different ways.
“First and foremost, we’re using it to aid the way we think about our customer interactions. There are a lot of things you can do with business intelligence that you couldn’t do so easily [before]. You can use it efficiently today [in ways] that make you smarter about the way you choose to interact with your customer. Particularly with us, in our business, we do a lot with reinvestment, the way we send out offers, the way we look at different things and the way we think about the total customer experience. So, it’s very useful there.
“It’s early days for us but we’re starting to see some very interesting things from it and we’re very happy we’re pursuing it. It’s an efficiency tool.”
Dumont was also quick to reject suggestions that AI could eventually replace human labor.
“We are a human capital business,” he clarified. “I think we look at it from the standpoint of making us better at what we do. We still have to train people to interact and to provide great service. We always say that these buildings, they don’t run themselves. You need people who really care about the customer, who are focused on service and who show up every day and are consistent and really care.
“That’s not going to be replaced by AI. That’s going to be enhanced by AI so we can do it better.”
