Football star David Beckham to promote casinos in Singapore and China

The Las Vegas-based company is the largest casino operator in Macau, the center of the modern day gambling world. The deal may help Sands win attention in mainland China, where casinos are illegal and casino advertising is also banned. Soccer is hugely popular in China.

As part of a new partnership, the star will be working with the Macau incarnation of The Venetian and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, two of Asia's highest profile hotels.

Beckham appears to have started his new gig already.

In November, he posed for photographs with 100 local kids at the Venetian Macau and gave an hour-long interview. The children were selected with the help of several local community groups, including the Macau Special Olympics and the Association of Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers of Macau.

Details about what the partnership will look like over the long term are scarce. Sands said it will use the Beckham brand in dining and retail options at its casinos. Michael Leven, Sands' president and chief operating officer, said in a statement that the Beckham brand will help Sands 'as we aggressively explore opportunities to further expand our presence in Asia.' 

However, China's central government is calling for Macau to attract more tourists, not just hardcore gamblers, and hosting sports events is a direct way of doing this. Over the summer, Beckham staged a similar event in Singapore, meeting about 60 kids at a Sands casino there.  The Marina Bay Sands resort opened in 2010 to great fanfare. 

The enormous hotel, which dominates the Singapore skyline, has 2,560 rooms and suites, a fleet of celebrity chef restaurants, shopping areas, theatres, a museum, a casino and a crystal pavilion. Sands owns four booming casinos in Macau. The Venetian Macau is the largest casino in the world.

Tourism to Macau, a former Portuguese colony turned administrative region of China, has boomed mainly thanks to the gaming industry. Its 35 gaming houses are the only places where Chinese nationals are allowed to gamble in casinos, and revenues are soaring. Macau gambling profits are expected to be seven times those of Las Vegas this year.