A company linked to Taiwan businessman Marshall Hao Shi-sheng has lost the latest round of its Macau legal fight that claims it is owed billions of U.S. dollars from the time of Las Vegas Sands Corp’s (LVS’s) original Macau casino rights, awarded more than 20 years ago.
The entity, Asian American Entertainment Corp, still has the option of going to Macau’s Court of Final Appeal.
The latest episode in the legal battle by Asian American Entertainment, has seen Macau’s Court of Second Instance reject an appeal against a lower court’s 2022 decision that had itself rejected a claim for damages against Las Vegas Sands. The latest ruling is revealed in an update on the Macau court website reviewed by GGRAsia. The date of the latest judgement and the full version of the ruling was not in the published materials.
The case as a whole has hinged on whether Las Vegas Sands has breached agreements entered with Mr Hao’s firm as well as copyright law that damaged Asian American Entertainment’s prospects of obtaining a gaming concession, as had been claimed. Las Vegas Sands’s Macau unit Sands China Ltd, is now in the second year of a fresh 10-year concession regime that began in Macau in January 2023.
Lawyer Jorge Menezes, partner at Macau firm FCLaw, representing Asian American Entertainment, declined to comment to GGRAsia regarding the substance of the second-instance court’s decision.
But he did tell GGRAsia the appeal route was “very likely”, as Asian American Entertainment was ready to “take the fight to the very end”.
GGRAsia has approached Las Vegas Sands’ Macau legal representatives in the case, seeking comment.
In April 2022, Macau’s Court of First Instance had given judgement in favour of the Las Vegas Sands side in Mr Hao’s civil case. The first-instance court said in a subsequent press release that Mr Hao’s party had engaged in litigation in “bad faith”, adding the plaintiff “seriously overestimated the amount of compensation” in the course of the proceedings.
At the start of the post-monopoly era for the Macau gaming market at the turn of this century, units of Las Vegas Sands had teamed up with Asian American Entertainment for a Macau licence.
Later the United States-based group switched to a partnership with Hong Kong entrepreneur Lui Che Woo, via an entity called Galaxy Casino SA.
In December 2002, the Macau government allowed an amendment to the Galaxy entity’s concession contract, so that a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands was granted a sub-concession spun off the original Galaxy licence. The Galaxy licence subsequently came under Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
(Updated October 19, 08:31pm)
