Las Vegas Sands has hired a top international marketer from Wynn Resorts to help build its global high-roller business.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that Yee Siew Lee has been named senior vice president of international marketing based in Singapore, where LVS operates the Marina Bay Sands megaresort. She is reporting to Larry Chiu, the Las Vegas-based casino giant’s president of international marketing, the report says.
Ms. Yee’s appointment comes after a lukewarm 2012 for Singapore’s 2-year-old casino industry, which consists of MBS and a second megaresort, Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa. Both recorded lackluster earnings from VIP gamblers for most of last year, signaling a market slowdown amid global economic uncertainties and Singapore’s strict regulatory policies.
A large part of the problem is that junkets, which play a major role in driving VIP business in Asia, particularly in Macau, by recruiting players and providing them credit, are viewed with apprehension in Singapore because of their opaque business structures and alleged organized crime ties. To date, the city-state has licensed only two of them, both working with RWS.