Consumers Leaving Less in Vegas: Las Vegas Sands President

More people visiting the Las Vegas strip, but they’re spending as much as they to, Michael Leven, Las Vegas Sands president & COO, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday.

“In May, we had lousy numbers in of gross gaming revenue but visitation was ,” he said. “We're getting less spend person and that's what statistically happening.”

He continued, “People don't have as much in their pocket and don't spend as much as used to and that has a downward spiral profits.”

That won’t change, Leven said, job growth picks up. “If we can't more jobs, we can't get more spending," he said. “We're a consumer- society and Las Vegas is a consumer-driven place.”

He also said it’s more challenging for Las Vegas Sands to develop gaming properties the U.S. “We're not looking in the United States, and we can't, because the difficulty of business here is getting more and difficult every day,” he said.

, much of the gaming company's development has focused Asia, including Vietnam, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, Leven said.

Las Vegas Sands is looking in areas like Spain are counter-cyclical, Leven said. “No one can a prediction as to what Europe is going to look five years from and if we do anything in Spain we're making a long- bet on the European population and European economy,” he stated.

He also sees China as opportunity and not a problem. “I think we to look at the great China consumer that’s growing,” he said. “It’s going to be the largest consumer in the world and we need to manufacture and spend money and time and research building business sell to China."

For Las Vegas Sands, Leven said Chinese consumers are “the highest level gamblers and buyers of consumer that we have.”


Adapted from: CNBC, July 14, 2012.