在几年前的经济衰退期间，当其他博彩公司都在勉强度日苟延残喘的时候，拉斯维加斯金沙集团首席执行官谢尔登·阿德尔森却冒着极大的风险，用自己的钱投资数十亿美元用于澳门赌场扩张。

　　几年后的现在，阿德尔森的投机冒险功德圆满，金沙集团已经成为世界上最赚钱的博彩公司之一，就在今天，价值44亿美元的金沙未来新篇章已经揭开。

　　金沙集团在澳门的金沙城中心，在多年筹建工作之后，终于首次向宾客敞开了大门，曾经的金融危机减缓了这个博彩娱乐胜地的建设速度，但是对许多人来说，它确实是非常值得期待的。

　　“我听说这个地方很多年了，一开始我以为是永远没有机会身临其境的”来自中国大陆的游客潘林说，“太美了，每个部分都非常漂亮，它是一家集华美和简约于一体的赌场”

　　金沙城中心开业前门前就被挤得水泄不通，数以百计的人在门外等了数个小时，当门最终打开赌博开始的时候，热切的赌徒立刻把赌台挤满，希望能在新赌场赢得一个“大满贯”。

　　在过去的十年里澳门已经成为世界博彩之都，金沙新赌场开张标志着澳门博彩业新历史时期开始。几年以前，澳门现有赌场的业主和澳门政府达成协议在2015年之前不增设新的博彩项目，当时金沙的项目被允许继续进行，金沙城中心将成为最近三年内澳门最新开业的唯一一家赌场。

　　常年来，澳门经济一直是依赖于博彩赌场创造的亿万美元的税收，但是政府担心澳门经济太过依赖博彩业，正在计划开发博彩之外新的经济增长点。

　　与此同时，阿德尔森并没有停止他在澳门的举动，这位赌业大亨一直在与西班牙政府合作推广博彩计划，并已经打通西班牙若干赌场的大门，得以从包括马德里和巴塞罗那在内的西班牙主要博彩胜地吸引客户来到金沙城中心。

　　译文：

　　Las Vegas Sands Opens Macau Casinos With An Eye On Spain

　　Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson took a big risk several years ago during the economic recession. While other gaming companies were busy cutting corners and trying to preserve their businesses, Adelson made the bold move of using billions of his own dollars to fund casino expansion in Macau.

　　Now, several years later, Adelson's gamble has come full circle, and Sands is one of the most profitable gaming companies in the world. Today, the next chapter in the company's future has been written, and it comes with a price tag of $4.4 billion.

　　Sands Cotai Central, the casino resort that has been in the works for years in Macau, finally opened its doors to customers for the first time. The financial crisis may have slowed the growth of the new gaming and entertainment facility, but for many, it was well worth the wait.

　　"I have heard about this place for years, and I started to think I would never actually see the inside," said Phan Linn, who was visiting from mainland China. "It is beautiful, every part of the place is gorgeous. This is the way it should be in a casino, grand, and simple at the same time."

　　The facility was packed even before the doors opened, with hundreds of people waiting outside for hours. When the doors finally opened and the gaming began, the tables were full of eager gamblers looking to make the first big score in the new casino.

　　Macau has become the gaming capital of the world over the past decade, and the opening of the new Sands facility marks a historic time in Macau gaming. A couple of years ago, existing casino owners and the Macau government agreed that no new development projects would begin before 2015. The Sands project was allowed to continue, and became the last of the casinos in Macau for at least another three years.

　　Macau has become reliant on the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that the casinos provide, but government officials are concerned that too much of the economy in Macau relies on gambling. The government is expected to develop the rest of the economy outside of gambling over the next few years.

　　Adelson, meanwhile, is not stopping in Macau. The gaming mogul has now opened the door to running up to a dozen casino resorts in Spain. The main resorts would attract gamblers from the largest markets in Spain, including Madrid and Barcelona. Adelson has been working together with the Spanish government to try and advance the gaming plans.