Afternoon. The 2014 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Las Vegas Sands Corporation will please come to order. My name is Mike Levin, and I am the President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. I would like to welcome all of you and thank you for your interest interest in our company. As President of the company, I will preside at this meeting.
The agenda for this afternoon includes all formal business stated in the statement. Following this meeting, we will have a period during which we will be happy to answer your questions. Please note that this meeting is being webcast on our Investor Relations website that can be accessed on www.sands.com. Also present at this meeting today are Sheldon G. Adelson, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and other members of our Board of Directors.
Jason Ader, please raise your hand, Erwin Chaffetz, Charles Forman and Charles Koppelman. 2 of our directors, Victor Schallviel and Jeffrey Schwartz, are unable to be here today. Rob Goldstein, our Executive Vice President of Global and President of Global Gaming is also here today as well as Ira Rafelson, our Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Ira Rafelson will act as Secretary of this meeting. Additionally, I'd like to mention that Irwin Siegel and George Kuo have announced their retirement from the Board of Directors.
As of today and while they are not here in attendance on behalf of the company, I would like to thank them for their many years of service and thoughtful contributions to our company. Each of you was given the rules of conduct when you entered the meeting room this morning. Additional copies are available in the registration area. It is our intention to conduct this meeting in accordance with the agenda and rules of conduct. Please remember that an opportunity will be provided immediately following the formal portion of the meeting for questions and discussion.
Let us now proceed with the formal business of the meeting, namely 1, to elect 2 directors to the Board, each for a 3 year term 2, to consider and ratify the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2014 to approve an extension of the term of the company's 2004 Equity Award Program to consider and act upon a non binding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers and to transact such other business as may properly come before this meeting or any adjournments thereof. Mr. Secretary, please report on the mailing of the notice of this meeting to all stockholders and the availability of the stockholders' list.
Thank you, Mr. Levin. I have an affidavit of mailing of the notice of Internet availability of proxy materials to each stockholder of record as of the close of business on April 14, 2014. I also present an alphabetical list showing all persons who were holders of record of the company's common stock at
the close of business
on April 14, 2014, the date of the Board of Directors fixed as the date for determining stockholders entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. The list has been duly certified by the American Stock and Transfer and Trust Company, the transfer agent of the company's shares. This list has been available for inspection for the 10 days prior to this meeting at the company's headquarters and is available for examination by any stockholder of the company for any purpose germane to this meeting at any time during this meeting. Thank you, sir.
Will the secretary please file the list of stockholders, the affidavit of mailing and copies of the notice of Internet availability of proxy materials transmitted to stockholders with the records of this meeting.
Yes, sir.
Donna Ansbro of American Stock Transfer and Trust Company has been asked to act as Inspector of the election at this meeting. Ms. Ansborough is present and has submitted an oath of office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I now ask that all those present with proxies who have not already done so, please file their proxies with the inspector. Present in person who did not register at the door and have not filed the proxy, will they please give their names and number of shares owned to the attendants at the door at this time?
Okay. Will the inspector now report whether a quorum is present?
690 5 shares of common stock. From the count of the stockholders present in person or by proxy, a majority of these shares are represented at this meeting either in person or by proxy and a quorum is present.
Thank you. On the basis of the report of the inspector, I declare a quorum present and the meeting duly convened and confident to proceed with the transaction of business. The purpose of this stockholders' meeting is for our stockholders to vote on the matters listed in the proxy statement that I described a few minutes ago. Those will be taken on these matters after all nominations and proposals have been introduced and the Inspector of Election will make a report on the outcome of the voters. We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting.
Please note that after each of the matters to be considered as has been formally proposed, we will circulate written ballots so that stockholders who have not already voted by proxy may vote on these matters. The first order of business is the nomination of 2 individuals to stand for election to the Board. Both of the company's nominees are present here today. I would like to introduce them to you at this time. They are Charles D.
Foreman, who is a current member of our Board and George Jamieson, who has been nominated to join our Board. Is there a motion on the proposed election of the nominees? I nominate Mr. Forman and Mr. Jamieson for election to serve as directors for a 3 year term and until their successors have been duly elected and qualified.
I second the motion. Are there any questions or comments with respect to the proposal? If there are no further nominations, a motion to close the nominations is in order. I move that the nominations be closed. I second the motion.
It has been moved and seconded that the nominations be closed and we will collect and tabulate the votes later in this meeting. The next order of business is the consideration and ratification of the independent registered public accounting firm selected by the Audit Committee of the Board to audit the books and records of the company for the year ended December 31, 2014. The Audit committee of the Board has selected Deloitte and Touche LLC. I am also pleased to note that the presence at this meeting today are Ed Ricks of Deloitte and Touche LLC. Mr.
Ricks is available to answer questions that stockholders might ask. Mr. Ricks, can you raise your hand? Ask Mr. Ryske to have a question behind him, please.
I will now entertain a resolution to ratify the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC to audit the books and records of the company for the year ended December 31, 2014. I move that the following resolution be adopted, resolved at the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC to order the books and records of the company for the year ended December 31, 2014, be confirmed, ratified and approved in all respects.
I second the motion.
The motion has been moved and seconded, and we will collect and tabulate the votes later in the meeting. The next order of business is the consideration and acting upon the proposal to approve an extension of the term of the company's 2004 Equity Award Plan. I will now entertain a resolution to act upon the proposal to approve an extension of the term of the company's 2004 Equity Award Plan. I move that the following resolution be adopted, resolved that the proposal to approve an extension of the term of the company's 2000 and 4 equity award plan be approved.
I second the motion.
The motion has been moved and seconded, and we will collect and tabulate these votes later in the meeting. The next order of the business is the consideration and acting upon a non binding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers. Although the vote is advisory and nonbinding on the Board of Directors, the compensation committee will take into account the outcome of the vote when considering future executive compensation decisions. I will now entertain a resolution to act upon a non binding advisory proposal on executive compensation. I move that the following resolution be adopted.
Resolve that stockholders approve the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC, which disclosure shall include the compensation discussion and analysis, the compensation tables and any other related material disclosed in the proxy statement.
I second the motion.
The motion has been moved and seconded, and we will collect and tabulate the votes later in the meeting. I now declare the polls open for voting by ballot. All those who wish to vote by ballot should obtain a ballot from an attendant. If you have already filed your proxy, it would simplify the count greatly if you would not fill out a ballot unless you wish to change your vote. I would also like to point out that most of you who return proxies authorize the individual named in the proxy to vote on all proposals coming before this meeting.
Has everyone voted who wishes to vote? Apparently, everyone has. I therefore declare the polls closed and ask the inspector to prepare a report on the voting. While the inspector is counting the votes, I would like at this time to give Sheldon G. Adelson, the Chairman of Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Las Vegas Sands, an opportunity to say a few words about the company.
But before I give the floor to the Chairman, I would like to thank him and the company for the opportunity I was given over the last five and a half years. It has been a wonderful experience to be able to contribute and to help execute Sheldon's vision and to see the vision come to fruition. It gives me great pride to say that as good as the last 5 years have been, I am absolutely certain the company's best days are ahead of it. I look forward to supporting the company as a member of the Board. I am sure the company will realize meaningful growth and great success in the years ahead.
With that, here is Sheldon Anderson.
Thanks, Mike, and thanks to all of you for joining us today either in person or by webcast. Mike, on behalf of the company and our Board of Directors, I want to express our heartfelt thanks for the hard work and dedication you have provided to the company over the last 5 years. We couldn't be more appreciative of the leadership you have contributed in the execution of my vision for the company. We have made outstanding progress and successfully extended our leadership position as the creator and now dominant global developer and operator of convention based integrated resource. From my perspective, I could be more confident than the talented and experienced management team we have in place for the future.
And we could be better positioned to continue to successfully execute our strategies for growth in the years ahead. I couldn't be more pleased to report to you, our shareholders, that we have an outstanding year that we had an outstanding year in 2013. We again delivered record financial results. Those results reflected the combined growth of our business in Macao as we capitalized on the tremendous opportunity to serve China and the broader Asian region with our portfolio of integrated resort properties on the Cotai Strip in Macao as well as with our iconic integrated resort in the central business district of Singapore, Marina Bay Sands. As the company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, I am principally focused on 3 important objectives for the company.
Successful execution of those objectives will enable us to deliver strong growth and outstanding returns to you, our shareholders, in the years ahead. First, the maximization of cash flow from our existing integrated resort properties and in particular, our properties on the Cotai Strip in Macau and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. 2nd, the pursuit of large scale development opportunities for new integrated resort properties in Asia. With Japan and Korea the principal focus as they present the most promising and meaningful development opportunities globally. We're also developing our latest integrated resort on the Cotard Strip in Macao called the Parisian Macao, which is targeted to open late next year in November of 2015.
More on that later. And 3rd, the continued growth of our return of capital to shareholders. Let me spend a moment on that 3rd item, which is an important one for all shareholders, including me. I do own a lot of stock in the company, happily. The return of capital to shareholders, yay dividends.
It's my new motto. Since we initiated our capital return program in 2012, the confidence we have in the strength of our business and the reliability and predictability of our cash flows have allowed us to regularly increase the return of capital to shareholders of both Las Vegas Sands and Sands China. In 2013, we returned over $1,700,000,000 of capital to shareholders of Las Vegas Sands in the form of dividends and share repurchases. And we returned over $400,000,000 to shareholders of Sands China. Additionally, in November 2013, we announced that the Las Vegas Sands recurring dividend would increase by 43% to $2 per share for the year 2014.
And we have repurchased nearly $1,000,000,000 of stock in the 1st 4 months of 2014. So I can share with you that we have been executing on our commitment to increase the return of capital to shareholders. As we have said in the past, as our EBITDA and free cash flow continue to grow, the cash not needed for capital expenditures and investments in new integrated resort developments will be returned to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases. Moving on to our financial performance for the year. We generated record revenues, adjusted property EBITDA, diluted earnings per share and cash flow from operations, which all reflect the strength and broad appeal of our properties in Macau, Singapore and the United States.
We now have 3 integrated resorts, 3 that make more than $1,000,000,000 of EBITDA per year. And the Venetian Macau on the Cotai Strip and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore are the 2 most successful integrated resorts in the world. That is an accomplishment that the company and I are quite proud of, but we will not be resting on our laurels. Our outstanding strategic positioning in Macau where our industry leading US9 billion dollars of investment in integrated resorts on the Cotai Strip, which feature over 9,000 hotel rooms and suites, dining, shopping, retail, convention and exhibition and entertainment offerings is unrivaled by any competitor. That dominant position will enable the company to capture growth in the years ahead as travelers from China and in Asia will broadly accumulate wealth and increase their business and leisure travel to both Macau and Singapore.
We are less than 18 months away from the debut of our latest integrated result on the Cotai Strip, the Parisian Macau. We will introduce the St. Regis at Sands Cotai Central late next year as well. These two new reasons will increase our invested capital in Macau to approximately USD 13,000,000,000 dollars The Parisian will be a highly themed destination integrated resort that will replicate familiar landmarks from Paris, such as a stand alone 40 story Eiffel Tower, shopping experiences that replicate a stroll down the Champs Elysees and of course the famous Arc de Triomphe. Importantly, the benefits of our integrated resort business model extend far beyond our own financial success.
The company's properties and service offerings featuring world class dining, shopping, convention, group meeting and entertainment experiences enhance the appeal of our host countries as business and leisure tourism destinations, while helping to diversify their economies, attract outside investment and increase employment. We are confident our integrated resort business model can provide meaningful economic benefits in additional countries in Asia and particularly in Japan and Korea. We believe our unmatched track record of successful integrated resort development, complete with our industry leading financial strength, positions us exceedingly well to secure and capitalize on the most promising global integrated resort development opportunities. Thank you once again for your support and the confidence you continue to show in our company. I would also like to thank our nearly 50,000 team members for the hard work over the last year and congratulate them on a job well done.
We look forward to sharing with you the ongoing success of the company in the years ahead. And we're looking forward to addressing your questions in just a few minutes. Thank you.
Let us now proceed with the voting results. Is the inspector ready to report?
In the election of directors, Charles B. Forman and George Jamieson have been elected of the company directors of the company by the affirmative vote of a plurality of the votes cast at the meeting. With respect to the ratification of the selection of Deloitte and Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2014. The proxies and ballots representing a majority of the votes cast by the stockholders present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the resolution and therefore the selection of Deloitte and Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2014 has been ratified. With respect to the proposal to approve an extension of the term of the company's 2004 Equity Award Plan, the ballots and proxies representing a majority of the votes cast by stockholders present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the resolution and therefore the resolution has been approved.
With respect to the non binding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers, the proxies and ballots representing a majority of the votes cast by stockholders present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the resolution and therefore the proposal has been approved.
On the basis of the report of the Inspector, I declare the resolution covering the election of 2 directors to the Board of Directors, the ratification and selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 the proposal to approve an extension of the term of the company's 2004 Equity Award Plan and the nonbinding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers have all been approved. Will the inspector please prepare a written record to be filed with the records of the meeting? If there is no other business to come before the meeting, a motion is in order that the meeting be adjourned. I move that the meeting be adjourned.
I second the motion.
It has been moved and seconded that the meeting be adjourned. All those stockholders in favor simply signify by saying aye. Those stockholders opposed by saying no. The motion is carried and the meeting is officially adjourned. At this point, we would be glad to answer questions that you might have regarding the company.
If you have a question, please rise, identify yourself, so that we may have a complete record of the meeting. Please note that the question and answer period is being webcast on our Investor Relations website.
I have two questions. Kurt Koffman, Salem, New Jersey. Number 1, are you going to give us a special dividend in 2014? And number 2, about a month ago, I believe the Chinese limited amount of immigration of fellow Chinese into Hong Kong for that effect to take in the casinos.
The Board of Directors has not voted to again issue a special dividend. The inclination of the Board is to increase regular dividends so people can rely upon it from period to period. It's not impossible that we issue a special dividend, but more likely that we will issue increased regular dividends. As far as limitations from China and Hong Kong visitation, I very vaguely heard of it, but it doesn't affect the account.
No, I don't think it was visitation. I think it was moving there, moving down and coming.
I'm not familiar with it. The joy of our customers come down and sign us.
So it's not relevant to us.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes, sir. Okay, you're next. I have 3 quick questions. With the recent development of non gaming expanding in Las Vegas such as the Link project with the high roller in the shops, the Grand Bazaar in front of Bally's and then I think they just had the groundbreaking of the pork between New York, New York and Monte Carlo.
Is Las Vegas Sands thinking of anything in the way of expanding non gaming enhancements? No. No. Okay. This question is Mr.
Levin. I recently read that you were responsible for getting the painted tarp over the construction area at the Venetian. And I think it's a great idea. It looks beautiful. And my question is, how did you get Mr.
Adelson to approve the $1,000,000 tab? I'm not sure he knew actually. In fact, I'm not sure it was $1,000,000 either. The building that was planned to be the St. Regis condominiums.
And what happened was that as you sit at the pool, in particular, and look up, you see that construction site. And for the 1st few years that it was empty, it was sort of a memory of the difficult times that Las Vegas was having. And we felt from a market perspective and a customer service perspective that we would cover the building and let it look like it was until we made a decision what to do with it, which has not been done. We have not made that decision yet and continue to investigate it. I I think that was it's a great move.
I mean, you really have to look at it to see that it's a tarp. Yes. Great.
And my last question is
The least expensive hotel we ever built at. And my last question is for Mr. Goldstein. And we want to know that if you're going to allow Ben Affleck to play in that hotel.
Yes.
Thank you very much. Yes, sir.
My name is Howard Levine. I'm a private stockholder in the company.
I have two questions.
1, on May 23, I had read that the lower house of the Japanese government was going to take a vote on the referendum. And I did not find out what the vote was or the referendum went forward on gaming in Japan.
I don't believe there was a referendum. I think there was a bill filed in December in the lower house of the Diet, the Parliament, for the purpose of debating the legalization of casino gaming. And that bill has been sitting and waiting for debate. And there was a lot of discussion about whether or not that debate would occur before the end of this session, which is scheduled on June 22. It's still debatable.
It's being debated whether or not there'll be a debate before June 22. So it appears to be either likely or unlikely, I'm not sure. Every e mail I get, it seems to change with the direction of the wind. However, those people that are on the Interparty Gaming Committee are pushing for a final decision and a passage of the bill, both in the lower house and the upper house no later than the special session of the day this fall.
Thank you. The second question is 2 articles I read in, whether it was New York Times Financial section or General, really makes no difference. One was on Singapore that was very recent that the Singaporean government will not allow Sands or the other outfit that has their casino there to expand, that they're going to be very restrictive and they are seem to be clamping down. I'll generalize on keeping the gaming section under tight range. That's the first thing.
And the second thing is this happened a while back was the flying in of the high rollers into Macau and the Chinese government clamping down on them and what effect would have on sands particularly I'm not interested in the others on the revenue that's coming into sands?
I'll answer the first one. I think I may ask Robert to answer the second. The first one is that I think that came out of a that the government may not let us expand out of a fireside chat style talk that I had for the Bernstein conference that was here last week. And I said that it was, in my opinion, unlikely to soon get an approval to expand some non gaming, which from our standpoint is comprised of hotel rooms, which we need badly. We're running at 99 percent plus occupancy.
Our RevPAR and our ADR is quite satisfactorily in U. S. Dollar terms, obviously in Singapore dollar terms. And we're looking for more hotel rooms if we can get them. We're looking for more exhibition space.
We're looking for more ballroom and meeting room space. This is all to the benefit of Singapore. But Singapore goes through a long process, a very lengthy process in getting land offered because they have to tender it out to anybody and everybody. And we would be the most logical users of that land. So I think it was your reaction is based upon the comment that I made that it was unlikely in the near future to get an approval.
However, that doesn't deter us from continuing to drive. Do you want to answer the second question? Sure.
I'm not sure about your specific reference to prevents the high rollers, but we both believe in our hearts
I'm sorry, that they were washing money in Macau. And in fact, one gentleman, they published, I forgot his name, some Chinese citizen disappeared. Quite some of money, I don't
want to say how much.
You're referencing a junkie group, which we don't work with that had a problem with demand. Just a side betting arrangement that allegedly left with $1,000,000,000 investors' money. It didn't impact us. And I think the key thing for us is we're committed to the mass market and primarily that's our strength in Macao. And those things too come and go, but our business there is really strong.
You see our Q1 numbers reported a while back. And we believe that it's the best gaming market in the world, remain the best market in the world and we
have the highest exposure to it.
So very confident about our future in Macao. Yes, sir. A question for Mr. Adelson, but first off to commend Mike Levin for the work he's contributed to the company over the years. And I guess the question follows with that.
With Mike leaving and I understand your Chief Financial Officer having left recently as well. What's kind of the plans for filling these positions and carrying forward your vision?
The CFO position is filled already with in 2 pieces. We have a Chief of Corporate Finance and we have a Chief Accounting Officer, both of which are the primary responsibilities of a CFO. I know that there are people saying that we need the CFO title. I and the Board are more interested in the CFO functions. If we get a CFO whose background is in corporate finance, they typically don't have background in both corporate finance and accounting.
Then if we get somebody who which was the previous one we had, the previous CFO was an expert on accounting and had little or no corporate finance background. So I believe the company is very well served by having an expert in both of the half half categories and functions of a CFO. We may because enough people keep asking the same question. We may, just to satisfy that, name a CFO. On the other question of replacing Mr.
Levin, is that I understand your question. We are in the process of retaining an executive search firm to conduct a search for a replacement for Mr. Levin. Any other questions? We will have the entire operations covered by replacing 1 fellow that didn't another executive VP.
So we'll have gaming headed by Rob Goldstein and we'll have non gaming, which is everything else headed by the other fellow. So everything will be covered, and I'm very proud to say that in our corporate organization structure, we have the best of the best of the best of heads in each of the departments. For instance, in our procurement department, we've had a gentleman that used to be the Head of Ford Motor Company, Asia Pacific Purchasing. And extraordinary, he's built up a procurement because they buy 100 of 1,000,000, if not 1,000,000,000 of dollars worth of stuff, whatever it is that we need, whether it's FF and E, Furniture, Fixes and Equipment and or Construction Materials. We have in Security the former Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the United States Secret Service, who ran 6,000 special agents.
And he himself, during his career, protected heads of state and the President of the United States. We have accounting not accounting, we have Purchasing Aviation. Purchasing Aviation. Oh, aviation. We are the largest nongovernment private non state private aircraft owners and operators in the world.
Between my family, which we have an unusually large number of planes for a family, But the only reason we do is I'm an airplane freak, and I have children and siblings that seem to all want to use a plane on the same day. They won't give up that same day use for another non demand day, So I got to have enough planes for all that. But we have a total of 23 aircraft. And one of our one of the reasons for that will both service regional demand to bring players into our properties and to serve international demand where we bring players from mostly Asia, but we've in the past brought some in from Europe and South America. And the purpose it's a marketing event.
And we keep very close track on it. It's a marketing tool, and we keep very close track of it. And many times, the company is overwhelmed with demand from the casino for planes, in which event is sort of a time sharing or a property sharing agreement under FAA laws between my family and the company to make sure that on the day or days there is the highest demand that there are enough planes to accommodate enough high rollers. So we're very pleased and we I could go through each and every like our IT guy is I can't give you the detail of his background, but he's extraordinary. And each one of the corporate departments are responsible for interacting with the property equivalents.
So if I have a security surveillance, anti terrorism, safety requirement at the corporate level, they have a dotted line responsibility to their equivalent for that function in each one of our properties. So we are well covered management wise. Frank?
Hi. Frank Corrado, stockholder from New Jersey. I'd like to address a question to
you, Mr. Adelson, since I know Mr. Levin is not going to be probably will not be around, although he will he's the best and he will sorely Mike, you'll be sorely missed. We know that. So Mr.
Allison, my question is this. You must be a friend of Mike's.
Kind of.
Kind of. We're all friends of Mike.
Yes, we are. Everybody is a friend of Mike. And Mike is a friend of everybody else too, so it's great. So here's my question. We all look forward to
the Parisian Macau opening up at the
end of 2015. And since
that's a very long and costly flight to get there, all right, I thought that you should consider
an idea where maybe for
the opening ceremonies, you could fly all the stockholders out there for the opening ceremony. And I was going to ask that question even before I heard about your plane. So I just thought maybe it's something you want to consider in
the future and I look forward to. You could be stockholders. You could not be stockholders as long as you're a high roller, you've got a flight. I'm definitely not a high roller. But anyway, thank you very much for listening to me and congratulations to everybody.
You're all doing a great job. Thank you. Yes, sir. This is
Ken Bell from Brookline. Just take the mic, sorry.
This is a sensitive question. Mr. Adelson, you've done a fabulous job with your company and for the stockholders. There's a question that's asked of Mr. Buffet all the time and I'd like to ask you, considering your age, have you designated someone to fulfill your role if you're unable to continue with your spryness or a group to continue to lead the company?
Thank you. I don't want to rain on your parade. Please do. Your suggestion of my demise, to quote Mark Twain, is premature and untimely. 80 is the new 60.
So I am celebrating my 60th birthday twice. I could tell you that of all the many companies that I've started and operated in my 68 year business career, I've come to learn something that sometimes takes away from my compelling need as an entrepreneur, sadly, is that companies build up a life of their own. I certainly don't intend for this to happen, but if God forbid I wasn't available to run it and Mike was already gone. I believe that Rob and whoever we get in the other role will be able to run the company for quite a while until I'm replaced, which I don't know is
possible.
That would take a long search. Because I'm entrepreneurial, my stock in trade is assessing taking educated risks. And I've learned over my 68 year business career that to get people to take risks is like getting somebody to have a root canal without Novocaine. Nobody wants to take risks. If somebody wanted to take risks, they're already running their own company.
So we're going to have to convert the company from an well, I am very glad to say that a lot of the people in the company are willing to take risks. And I was in Macau a couple of weeks ago and talking to one of the top executives and saying, listen, I want you to take risks. And he looked at me as though I was asking him to jump from here to the moon. I said, it's what's more, I don't necessarily want you to fail, but I certainly would object if you take a risk and you did fail. Because then you'll learn what a pitfall is and then you won't run into a problem or a pitfall in the future.
So I'm all in favor of taking risk, but it's tough to replace an entrepreneur whose specialty is knowing marketing and finance, which are the 2 critical components of running a business, it's going to be it may be hard like you say, but I have complete confidence that the people we have running I mean, it's they've created the company has created a life of its own. If I took a month off and I came back, I don't think one thing would change because that might damage my ego a little bit. But thinking they didn't get along without me, but that's okay. So we're well off. We've got fabulous people.
Just happened that way. We've hired the best. We encourage risk taking. We encourage collaboration between others and our corporate department and to transfer that knowledge down to the property level. So I'm very confident that we're well prepared for allocations.
Any other questions? Bill Trimble, Seattle, Washington. I wonder if this sounds mundane, as states looking for more taxes, they're trying to
get into the sports betting business.
I know Vegas is against that. I don't know if you're part of that, but that was a question. Or is it even worth considering for a firm like Las Vegas Sands? And secondly, in the same format, as time goes on, with all the illicit gaming offshore and so forth, that's illegal, I think in the future, that's going to change and companies like yourselves will be in a position to offer online gaming. I don't know if you agree with that, but I'd just like to hear your comments.
I am personally as the Chairman and CEO of this company and representing the interest, I believe, of the Board of Directors and I hope all the other shareholders, I am firmly and determinedly against Internet Gaming. If you stop to think about what you've seen in the press about a particular state saying, well, there's a proposal on the table to allow casino gaming in our state. How many years do they debate that? How many years do they put limitations on where it's going to be and how it can be operated in the state. And the prospect of Internet gaming immediately puts a casino in every person's smartphone, every person's iPad, every person's computer.
You don't have to get out of bed to have a casino in your hands or to be in a casino. How can you tell whether somebody is out of control by being drunk or on drugs? And how can you tell whether or not the person has money to gamble? And how can you tell if that person is underage or overage? I am morally against it, emphatically.
Why? Because we're the largest company by far. Our market cap is worth more than all the other gaming companies in the United States combined. Thank you. Our EBITDA is more than 12,000 hotels management companies combined, like Marriott with 3,000 hotels, hotels, not keys, Hyatt with 500 Starwood, who's the hotel we're sitting in today is one of their top brand.
And Intercontinental, there were 1,000 hotels. And Intercontinental that owns Holiday Inn with 4,000 hotels, we have more EBITDA than all those properties combined. In Europe, Internet Gaming has impacted 20% of the land based casinos. Once the employment of land based casinos is done away with because of Internet gaming, not immediately, but over the long term, they can't be replaced because taking 20% of the business off the top is like taking 100% of the profit at the bottom line. My aversion to Internet Gaming is not based only on a business matter, but I come from a very, very poor family.
This podium we're sitting on is bigger than the 1 bedroom that my parents and 4 children who slept on the floor, bigger than that bedroom. And I saw the results of the effect on a family where the father or mother likes to gamble and where they take all the extra money the family has and even money they don't have that they borrow and go out to gamble it away and what impact it has on a family that can't afford it. The most vulnerable people in our society are poor people, people that are always looking for to strike it rich, people that are always looking for a jackpot. And I don't want those people having been one of them to be impacted by Internet gaming because somebody could play without leaving their bed, their kitchen table, their bathroom or leaving their home or while they're away. They just take their phone and look at it and gamble.
I don't see I know there is no compelling reason to do so. If an adult wants to play in a casino, it's very simple. Just put on your clothes, drive either 5 minutes or an hour to get to the nearest casino and 39 out of 50 states have gaming, And you could just go there. You show that you're an adult. You show you have the money.
You show you're not an addict, a drug addict or you're not high, you're not an alcoholic, you're not out of control of yourself and you're not an underage person and you have the money to gamble. Go ahead, have a good time. But I am very, very much against Internet Gaming. Is there anything else for me to take? Stronger words to follow.
Any other questions?
Good afternoon. Sony Yodas from Brooklyn. And before I ask my question, I'd like to express my gratitude to you, Mr. Adelson, and your team for allowing a retired sanitation guy from Brooklyn to find your company at $19 5 years ago. I made a lot of money.
Well, good to you. Thank you.
And if you ever want to come to Brooklyn, I'll give you a real nice tour and we'll go to nation's hot sauce on me. Mr. Goldstein, just to follow-up. Whatever you want. Now I got plenty of free time and a lot of money.
You guys like hot dogs. Okay. You guys like.
I don't like them. I love it.
We can go to the jelly. Just a quick follow-up Mr. Goldstein
on the Union card issue.
Yes, Union Pay. Are we really concerned about this
or is it not in control? No, we're not concerned at all.
Union Pay, for a long time, we're
very convinced that there may be some changes, but long term, it's just fine.
I'm hanging in. I doubled down and I came up with an ace and a k. Congratulations.
Okay. Union Pay is right out here on Fifth Avenue at the edge of this building. Union Pay is an international program. It's the biggest like $500,000,000,000 or $1,000,000,000,000 worth of activity. It's not UnionPay was not made for Macau.
It's all over the world. It's the biggest Chinese credit card. From our standpoint, all they want to do is to stop has to do with who's getting what commission and what percentage. They want to stop people from sitting at the gaming table and swiping the cart and getting money. They want them to go to buy the watch and turn it back in and go through the routine at the watch and jewelry shops.
And the only thing they're changing is cut out the swiping completely, which is okay with us, And just move the union paid jewelry shops outside the casino, like if you take that draped door over there, if this is the casino, you can move the jewelry shop on the other side of the Drakes and it's okay. So it's nothing to worry about.
Any other questions? If there are no further questions, we'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you once again for coming to the annual meeting and see you next year.