Las Vegas Sands Hires Former Wynn Executive for Casino Marketing Role - Sources

   By Chun Han Wong 
 

SINGAPORE--Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) has hired a former Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) executive to help direct its global casino marketing activities from its Singapore property, two people with knowledge of the move said Tuesday.

Yee Siew Lee was named last month as senior vice president of international marketing, the people said. Her responsibilities include growing Las Vegas Sands' premium-gambler business, and she reports to Larry Chiu, the U.S. gambling group's president of international marketing, one of the persons said.

Ms. Yee, who served as senior vice president at Wynn in a similar role, is now based in Singapore, where Las Vegas Sands runs the Marina Bay Sands casino resort. Genting Singapore PLC (G13.SG), a unit of Malaysian gambling company Genting Bhd. (3182.KU), runs the only other casino in the city-state, Resorts World Sentosa.

A spokeswoman for Marina Bay Sands declined to comment.

Ms. Yee's appointment comes after a tepid 2012 for Singapore's fledgling casino industry, which opened its two casinos in early 2010 and has since grown into Asia's second-biggest gambling market after Macau.

Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa booked lackluster earnings from high-spending premium gamblers for most of last year, signaling a market slowdown amid global economic uncertainties and Singapore's tightening of casino regulations. But the premium segment showed signs of recovery in the fourth quarter, when so-called "high roller" volumes at both casinos grew strongly from a year earlier.

Write to Chun Han Wong at [e-mail]

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