Las Vegas Sands shares fall and $4B Singapore Casino rises

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) down another 16% today to $5 and change a share, yet CEO Sheldon Adelson remains “committed” to its $4-billion Singapore casino.  Money well spent for shareholders?

Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino that raised $2.1 billion of capital last week, will “survive’’ and recover from the “very rough 18 months” ahead for the casino industry, chief operating officer William Weidner said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which said earlier this month there was “substantial doubt” that the Las Vegas-based company would be able to continue as a going concern, withdrew the warning after the share sales, according to a Las Vegas Sands regulatory filing Monday.

Last Friday Las Vegas Sands said it completed a sale of common and preferred stock and warrants to repay debt and finance development projects. Chief executive officer Sheldon Adelson and his family invested about $525 million. That was in addition to the $475 million he injected September 30.  Talk about doubling down.

Adelson was ranked the third-richest man in the US by Forbes magazine before the shares tumbled 95% this year. Sheldon Adelson needs the cash to avoid violating the terms of some US loans and triggering defaults that risked forcing it into bankruptcy, the auditors said early this month. Sands has already said it would delay construction of Macau resorts and Las Vegas condos to focus on finishing a $5-billion Singapore project and the casino part of its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, site.

Take your money to the poker tables or buy some Las Vegas Sands shares, both are a gamble, but which one has better odds?

Discliamer: No positions in LVS.