Income Taxes - Additional Information (Detail)	12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 MOP	Dec. 31, 2012 Foreign subsidiaries [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Foreign subsidiaries [Member] USD ($)
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Macau income tax exemption, term	5 year exemption period
Macau income tax exemption, termination date	Through the end of 2013
Reduced consolidated net income (loss) attributable to Las Vegas Sands Corp	$ 139,800,000	$ 108,600,000	$ 81,000,000
Reduced diluted earnings per share attributable to income tax holiday	$ 0.17	$ 0.13	$ 0.10
Macao tax exemption annual payment	1,800,000			14,400,000
Macau percentage tax due on dividend distributions	12.00%
Windfall income tax benefit	171,500,000	112,200,000
Operating loss carryforward for Company's U.S. operations	0	359,700,000
U.S. foreign tax credit carryforwards	1,200,000,000	84,500,000
State operating loss carryforward for domestic operations	220,700,000	185,900,000
U.S. foreign tax credits, expiration begin	Which will begin to expire in 2021
General business credits, expiration begin	Which will begin to expire in 2024
General business credits	4,300,000	3,800,000
Valuation allowance provided on net operating loss carryforwards, credit carryforwards and other deferred tax assets	1,180,000,000	145,700,000			209,400,000	179,500,000
Operating loss carryforwards for foreign subsidiaries	1,560,000,000	1,380,000,000
Special one-time repatriation of prior earnings of certain foreign subsidiaries in the form of dividend	1,370,000,000
Amount of undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries					4,270,000,000	5,620,000,000
Unrecognized tax benefits recorded as reductions to the U.S. net operating loss deferred tax asset		8,900,000	7,900,000
Unrecognized tax benefits recorded in other long-term liabilities	59,300,000	34,500,000	27,900,000
Uncertain tax benefits that would affect effective income tax rate	47,800,000	33,900,000	31,300,000
Reasonably possible change in unrecognized tax benefits, upper bound	$ 17,000,000