Singapore casino opens
By Kevin Lim |
June 24, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LAS Vegas Sands' bet on gambling-wary Singapore may be paying off. The world's most valuable casino firm said its US$5.5 billion casino resort in the city state is on track to draw up to 150,000 visitors a day once things are in full swing, the highest number for any of its properties worldwide.
The casino itself, the second in Singapore after Genting's Resorts World on the resort island of Sentosa, is seeing 25,000 visitors a day, above Las Vegas Sands' expectations, officials said yesterday.
The world's second-most expensive gambling complex after MGM Resorts' CityCenter in Las Vegas, was formally opened yesterday after a soft launch in April and economists said the numbers it had forecast could help bolster the economy.
"If these numbers are really achieved, you could see a more sizeable impact on Singapore's GDP," said Kit Wei Zheng, an economist at Citigroup. "If you do 150,000 a day it would probably offset some of the growth drag you may see from G3 (the United States, the European Union and Japan) economies."
The numbers could help ease the persistent ambivalence in closely regulated Singapore about legalizing the gambling business, and worries about the social ills that could come in its wake.
The government levies a hefty S$100 (US$72) fee on each Singaporean every time they step into a casino but that hasn't deterred those who want to have a flutter. About S$70 million has been collected from locals visiting the city's two casinos.
The casino itself, the second in Singapore after Genting's Resorts World on the resort island of Sentosa, is seeing 25,000 visitors a day, above Las Vegas Sands' expectations, officials said yesterday.
The world's second-most expensive gambling complex after MGM Resorts' CityCenter in Las Vegas, was formally opened yesterday after a soft launch in April and economists said the numbers it had forecast could help bolster the economy.
"If these numbers are really achieved, you could see a more sizeable impact on Singapore's GDP," said Kit Wei Zheng, an economist at Citigroup. "If you do 150,000 a day it would probably offset some of the growth drag you may see from G3 (the United States, the European Union and Japan) economies."
The numbers could help ease the persistent ambivalence in closely regulated Singapore about legalizing the gambling business, and worries about the social ills that could come in its wake.
The government levies a hefty S$100 (US$72) fee on each Singaporean every time they step into a casino but that hasn't deterred those who want to have a flutter. About S$70 million has been collected from locals visiting the city's two casinos.
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