Las Vegas Sands

Sands Expo & Convention Center just took the “waste” out of waste.

If you want to hold an eco-friendly convention, you don’t need to look any further than our 1.9 million square feet of show floor and meeting space.

“We’ve already hosted the largest composted event in Las Vegas history,” says Lisa Witherell, a LEED AP and director of convention operations at Sands Expo.

During a major convention of over 15,000 attendees, Sands Expo successfully composted 37,000 pounds of waste.

“Rather than dumping mounds of their garbage in landfills,” Witherell said, “we teamed up with Lunas Recycling and A1 Organics, in order to recycle and compost the waste.” Read the rest of this entry »

The great American satirist once gave his take:

Anyone who can make a bagel and a lot of noise can create a convincing New York. And Paris as we know it today is mostly a recent fabrication–the product of urban renewal in the 1870s… But Venice is another matter… there is a mystery to Venice, a soul, an essence–quite a strong essence on a hot August day when the tide is low in the Adriatic. Phew!

“You didn’t get the smell right,” I said to Sheldon Adelson.

“Can’t do everything,” he said.

Lehigh Valley Live reports some good news:

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem last month generated more revenue off its tables than any other Pennsylvania casino, marking a first. Sands in August topped previous frontrunner Parx Casino in Lower Bucks County in table games revenues, according to new figures released today from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Washington Post: An Oregon man mistook a Nebraska police station for a casino—twice.

Ex-croupier hid $15,000 worth of chips in his socks: “A croupier at the Marina Bay Sands casino slipped a $5,000 chip into his right sock on three occasions between April and August.” Oh, brother. When I hear these kinds of story, I want to bang my head against the wall. If you’re thinking about pulling a casino heist…give it up, man. Modern casino security is replete with cutting-edge facial recognition software, security teams trained by special forces, sophisticated cameras monitoring every inch of the floor with high-tech tracking capabilities—and other cool James Bond type stuff. You’re just not going to succeed.  

And rightly so. It’s a compliment to the existing entertainment options in Lehigh Valley.  

Sands Bethlehem Event Center officials said… their partnership with major concert promoter Live Nation will bring acts that aren’t now coming to the Lehigh Valley.

The facility will attract acts that now go to The Borgata in Atlantic City and Tower Theatre outside of Philadelphia, said Jerry Deifer, co-founder of Vision Entertainment Group, which will manage the Sands event center.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt anybody because what we’re going to do here isn’t what’s going on here,” Deifer said.

Instead of competing with any of the Lehigh Valley concert venues, Deifer said, the Sands event center will allow Sands to attract even more business from Atlantic City, especially combined with the casino’s new hotel and upcoming outlet mall.

“The people that used to drive to Atlantic City from the North Jersey area and the New York area, they can now go an hour away to a casino and enjoy all the amenities,” Deifer said.

Allentown’s hockey arena also is expected to bring in major music acts not coming to the Lehigh Valley, Pawlowski said. But because of the hockey arena’s significant size advantage over the Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Pawlowski said, he doesn’t expect them to be competitors, either.

“We’re really delighted by the announcement — it’s apparent we share a vision for transformation,” he said. “It’s just going to drive people in to the Lehigh Valley and get it ingrained in their mind that it’s a destination place.”

Read the rest at Lehigh Valley Live.

The picture is an artist’s rendering of our upcoming event center in Bethlehem. The Morning Call provides more details:

The new events center, under construction at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, has been designed by Howard Kulp Architects of Salisbury Township.

The 50,000-square-foot center will include space to seat 2,250 concertgoers or up to 3,500 standing and be reconfigured for conventions and other attractions like mixed martial arts competitions. The center is expected to book big-name acts through Live Nation Entertainment, one of the biggest marketers in the business. Live Nation was brought on board by Vision Entertainment Group, which partnered with the Sands on the project.

If you haven’t heard yet, we added an important new component to our green initiatives: Sands Eco 360˚ Meetings. Its goals are to improve human health, eliminate waste, support local produce, and protect endangered ecosystems.

Under this plan, an array of standard and optional services is now available at all meetings and conventions held at our properties in Las Vegas.

Examples of services include: using dishware to minimize use of disposables; recycling food waste as animal feed; donating left-over materials and food from trade-shows to charities; using water in pitchers rather than individual plastic bottles; offering organic menus with vegetarian options; providing seafood according to the Marine Watch and/or Blue Ocean programs; recycling solid waste including glass, plastics, aluminum, cardboard, and paper; and using electronic tools and recycled products to reduce paper consumption.

Right now this groundbreaking program is implemented in Las Vegas, and we will expand to our global properties in the future.

“The launch of Sands Eco 360° Meetings is a natural expansion of Sands’ commitment to respect the environment in a comprehensive and impactful way, and to build a legacy of a cleaner and safer world for future generations,” said Michael Leven, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. “It is also the right thing for Las Vegas Sands to do for our group customers, who have a growing interest and dedication to conduct business in an environmentally responsible way. Many of our meeting customers have already benefited from the best-in-class service we can provide, and we’re ready to share these results widely.”

(Our thanks to PublicDomainPictures.net for the above image)