Las Vegas Sands Corp. is exiting the digital gaming market. Instead, it plans to focus more on the company’s Asian gaming operations.
Sands Digital Services sought to offer live dealer-streamed casino games in legal online casino jurisdictions. However, the company is ditching that plan for now.
As a result, Sands will lay off between 300 and 400 employees. According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, about 150 of those will be local Las Vegas workers. Sands officials said the project wasn’t a good fit for the company.
“As has always been the entrepreneurial approach of our company, investments in SDS were made with the understanding there would be multiple points in the process where we would assess the most pragmatic path forward,” Sands President and COO Patrick Dumont said in a letter to employees.
“Ultimately, we reached a moment in which it was clear to executive leadership and our board of directors that further pursuit of this business was no longer aligned with the company’s core long-term objectives.”
Focus Shifts To Asia
The company will now focus more on its operations in Macau and Singapore. Dumont called them the “two best markets in our industry.”
The move to live-streamed dealer games would have pitted Sands against industry heavyweights, including Evolution Gaming and Playtech. Those operations offer players the feel of playing a live casino from their own home.
Some operations have expanded in recent years to include a game show and community atmosphere with players following along at home on their computers or phones.
Sands ditched more than the online gambling market. Earlier this year, Sands scrapped efforts to build a Dallas casino after spending mullions of dollars lobbying Texas lawmakers to legalize casino gambling.
Sands purchased property in the Dallas area, anticipating a casino in the city. Then, it purchased a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks in 2023.
