The casino’s parent company is making way for a $500 million Linq Project, which will include an outdoor shopping and dining area and a giant observation wheel.

The Sands selloff is puzzling until you hear about the earnings call. As my colleague Avi Salzman noted here earlier, Nomura Equity Research analyst Emily Cleary Harry Curtis made a boxing analogy as she called the tone of that call “contentious.”

The problem: Management was apparently less than eager to hand over the new info many investors wanted. That includes the early trends at the Sands Cotai, the company’s fourth Macau casino. “Expectations for LVS have been high,” Cleary wrote. “If results at Sands Cotai are slow to build, we have little doubt that there could be temporary downside.” Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts Shaun C. Kelley and Matthew A. Cole mentioned the reluctance to talk in a Thursday note and added that they were dialing back estimates for the Cotai efforts.

The Market Vectors Gaming ETF (BJK) has pared its early loss and is currently down 0.3% at $36.60 in afternoon trading. Trading volume is the heaviest in about two months, according to FactSet Research Systems. This ETF carries an LVS weighting of nearly 17%, which is more than twice the next biggest stock, Wynn Resorts (WYNN), at 7%. There was clearly some morning selling pressure in sympathy with the Sands slide, but the bargain hunters and speculators have moved in midsession.

Net income advanced 72 percent to $498.9 million, or 61 cents a share, the Las Vegas-based company said today in a statement. Excluding some items, earnings of 70 cents topped the 60-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Las Vegas Sands experienced a strong performance from its domestic resorts and in Singapore, where casino revenue increased 51 percent to $701.3 million in the quarter. The Marina Bay Sands there averaged 98 percent occupancy at $341 a night, the company said. In Las Vegas, casino revenue jumped 91 percent to $158.7 million.

“Excellent numbers,” David Bain, an analyst at Sterne Agee Leach Inc., said in an e-mail.

Las Vegas Sands said it posted a industry record of $1.07 billion in quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

“No company has ever achieved a $1 billion Ebitda for a quarter,” Adelson said on a call with investors.

The company is expanding in Macau, the world’s largest casino market and the only place in China where gambling is allowed, through its Hong Kong-listed unit Sands China Ltd. (1828) Casino operators in Macau are in a growth phase, driven by new properties and non-gaming revenue, said Grant Govertsen, an analyst with Union Gaming Research in Macau.

“We’re in a supply-driving-demand scenario,” Govertsen said on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move Asia” on April 20.

That’s according to an arrest report for 32-year-old Jorge Victorino-Vazquez, who is charged with burglary, conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder in connection with the alleged plot.

The crime was scheduled to take place on Monday, which was also Vazquez’s birthday, according to police.

“He went so far as to say it would be his birthday present,” officials wrote in the report.

Police said an informant tipped them to Vazquez’s plan to have someone break into his house, beat him up, steal some belongings and kill his wife.

That led to an April 19 meeting between the husband and an undercover officer at the Triple Play casino-restaurant on Decatur Boulevard near Sahara Avenue, according to police.

For a $2,000 fee, “Vazquez explained he wanted his wife killed because she was cheating on him, took his money, took his vehicles, wouldn’t sign papers for him, and always threatened to call INS to have him deported,” officials wrote in the report.

To be fair, the burgers themselves may not be the culprit. The restaurant owner, Jon Basso, noted that the woman was also smoking and drinking a margarita.

“I would say the woman gave her body every single thing it could handle and it finally gave out,” Basso told KVVU-TV Fox5.

This is the second time in three months that someone has collapsed while eating a burger at the Heart Attack Grill, where the motto is “Taste worth dying for.” Guests are described as patients in the restaurant’s stated quest against anorexia.

In February, a man in his 40s was eating a Triple Bypass when he began sweating and shaking.

Ocie Harris, 29, of Chicago, pleaded an equivalent of no contest in Nevada state court to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of firing a weapon into a vehicle. Each charge carries a possible sentence of one to six years in prison.

Harris declined comment outside court. His lawyer, Tom Pitaro, said he intends to seek probation.

Mayweather was never charged in the case, and his name wasn’t spoken during Harris’ brief court appearance. Mayweather’s lawyer, Richard Wright, didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The unbeaten five-division champion is training for a May 5 fight against Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas, where he’s due to serve 90 days in county jail beginning June 1 after pleading guilty in an unrelated domestic violence case.

Harris avoided trial with his Alford plea before Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon. He didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors could prove their case involving the August 2009 shooting outside the Crystal Palace Skate Center.

Prosecutors dropped two more-serious attempted murder charges and one felony weapon charge.

Prosecutor Samuel Bateman noted that Harris’ plea is a conviction on three felonies. He said he planned to make Mayweather’s presence at the shooting scene and his encounter with one of the men in the car part of the court record during Harris’ Aug. 23 sentencing.

“The facts are plain that Mr. Harris and Mr. Mayweather are associates and friends,” Bateman said outside court. “It doesn’t appear to me there was any other motive” for the shooting.

Authorities say seven shots were fired and six hit the BMW sedan. Neither the driver, Damein Bland, nor the passenger, Quincey Williams, was wounded.

A separate civil lawsuit alleging Mayweather orchestrated the attack is pending in Clark County District Court. It seeks monetary damages for Bland and Williams.

Mayweather’s manager, Leonard Ellerbe, has characterized the lawsuit as “another attempt to extort money.”

The argument was over a text message that Williams sent wishing Mayweather bad luck in his next fight, according to a police report. Mayweather allegedly told Williams he could have him “trumped.”

Witnesses told police that Harris was with Mayweather “as he was threatening Williams” and that others heard a group of men tell Harris to wait for Williams and Bland to exit the skating center.

The federal government’s real estate and supply agency made waves for stiffing taxpayers with an $823,000 bill from a Las Vegas conference in October 2010, but further probes revealed a history of excessive spending and misconduct. For instance, while most interns survive on monthly stipends, GSA treated about 120 of its interns to a five-day conference at a Palm Springs, Calif., resort in May 2010. More recently, an investigation led by Inspector General Brian D. Miller found 115 missing Apple iPods meant for an employee-rewards program.

Thanks to Miller’s investigation into the agency and its fete, taxpayers can see how their hard-earned cash is put to use. On the heels of Tax Day, here are some highlights of how the agency spent nearly a million dollars on a single party:

Western Regions Conference Planning: $136,504
• $100,405.37 in employee travel costs for pre-planning meetings, scouting trips and a “dry run.”
• More than $30,000 in pre-conference catering including lunch at $57.72 per person.

Western Regions Conference Catering: $146, 527
• $5,600 for three semi-private in-room parties
• $79, 511 for light refreshments and breakfast
• $31,208 for a “networking reception”
• $44 per head for daily breakfast
• $30,208, or about $95 per person, for reception and dinner

Team-Building Exercise: $75,000
• Teams built bicycles which were later donated to the local Boys’ and Girls Club

Other Party Perks:
• $3,749.40 for T-shirts
• $2,781.50 for water bottles
• $400 for rented tuxedos for three officials
• $6,325 for commemorative coins in velvet boxes for all participants
• $1,840 on vests for 19 “regional ambassadors” and other employees

The AP also notes that taxpayers footed the bill for $7,000 on sushi at a networking reception and $3,200 for a session with a mind reader.

Speaking publicly for the first time as he appeared with a half-dozen other current and past GSA employees at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, Peck was forced to explain his decision to not severely discipline Regional Commissioner Jeff Neely — the official at the center of the scandal who has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to not testify. Lawmakers also asked Peck about efforts to comply with year-old demands from the House committee for detailed budget figures on the Public Buildings Service.

Jeff Neely, a regional commissioner who oversaw the event, had been scheduled to testify today before the House Oversight Committee. He cited his Fifth Amendment rights.

Brian Miller, the GSA inspector general who investigated the spending, told the committee he has asked the Department of Justice to consider criminal charges.

GSA Administrator Martha Johnson resigned April 2 following the inspector general’s report on the 2010 conference for agency employees. The five-day event featured a professional mind reader, a clown and a $75,000 team-building exercise that involved assembling bicycles.

Johnson apologized at today’s hearing. “I will mourn for the rest of my life the loss of my appointment,” she said in her opening statement.

The agency’s deputy commissioner, David Foley, told committee members that he understands the “outrage” over the conference. “I sincerely apologize,” he said.