Las Vegas Sands Ditches $30B Spanish Mega Project to Focus on Asia

Casino giant Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) scrapped plans to build a $30 billion mega casino and resort in Spain on Friday, ending years of negotiations and fundraising.

The company says it will instead shift its focus to the high-growth Asian market, including Japan and Korea.

“Developing integrated resorts in Europe has been a vision of mine for years, but there is a time and place for everything," Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson said in a statement.

The “EuroVegas” plans would have included 12 hotels, six casinos, a convention center, several golf courses, theaters, shopping centers and restaurants. Las Vegas Sands earlier this year said that it had received enough financing to fund the project.

However, Asia continues to lure Western casinos looking to take advantage of the region's burgeoning middle class and rising subset of billionaires.

The region's current gambling hub in Macau blew past annual revenue records in 2013, with The Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau last week posting numbers valuing Macau's gambling revenue at close to $41 billion through the end of November, a new record.

"Right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries to dramatically enhance their tourism offering through the development of integrated resorts there," Adelson said.

The company commended the Spanish government’s effort to bring the project, expected to create as many as 260,000 jobs, to fruition. It was expected to break ground at the end of this year.