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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 ($7.62 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 (GENS.SI)(GENT.KL) Resorts World on the resort island of Sentosa, is seeing 25,000 visitors a day, above Las Vegas Sands’ (LVS.N) expectations, officials said on Wednesday.
The casino itself, the second in Singapore after Genting’s (GENS.SI)(GENT.KL) Resorts World on the resort island of Sentosa, is seeing 25,000 visitors a day, above Las Vegas Sands’ (LVS.N) expectations, officials said on Wednesday.
The world’s second-most expensive gambling complex after MGM Resorts’ (MGM.N) CityCenter in Las Vegas, was formally opened on Wednesday 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 economies.”
The numbers could help ease the persistent ambivalence in closely regulated Singapore about legalising the gambling business, and worries about the social ills that could come in its wake.
The government levies a hefty $100 fee on each Singaporean every time they step into a casino but that hasn’t deterred those who want to have a flutter. About $70 million has been collected from locals visiting the city’s two casinos as of May 10.
Sands said Singaporeans accounted for about one-third of the 25,000 people who visit its casino every day.
The resort, resembling a giant surfboard perched on three columns at the mouth of the Singapore River, is still far from finished with many of the shops at the glitzy mall still yet to open. It will also have a link to Singapore’s subway system by 2012.
“When we get into 2012, when the subway is open and all the shops are open, we expect the numbers to grow substantially,” Sands Chief Operating Officer Mike Leven told reporters.
