Singapore Sands?

It sounds like a drink you’d buy in a Asian-themed bar, but that might be the name of the Marina Bay casino/hotel/resort in Singapore, as Las Vegas Sands won the bid to build a casino in the Marina area. From Yahoo Finance:

Singapore picked Las Vegas Sands Corp. to build and run what will be the world’s most expensive casino at a cost of more than S$5 billion (US$3.2 billion), sending the U.S. casino operator’s shares up more than 9 percent.

The tiny island nation scrapped a ban on casinos last year in a move to shake off its staid image and capture part of Macau’s success as a gambling center for Asia’s increasingly wealthy and mobile middle class.

Las Vegas Sands, the world’s largest gaming operator by stock market value, beat three other bidders with a promise to invest S$3.85 billion (US$2.4 billion) in the project, on top of the S$1.2 billion price tag for the land in downtown Singapore.

“This is a pretty big win for Las Vegas Sands,” said Peter Dunay, chief investment strategist at fund management firm Leeb Group. “As far as real strong explosive growth, it is coming from the strength you are seeing in the Asian (market).”

Sands wins bid for Singapore casino: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Bill Eadington announced the decision at the International Conference on Gambling and Risk-Taking on Friday and showed the crowd a rendering of the casino design. It looks spectacular, with what looks like three decks of cards supporting a “hanging garden” feature. I’m already looking forward to 2009, when the resort will open.