Downturn raises odds at Singapore casinos - Asia Times Online

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KA15Ae01.html

Downturn raises odds at Singapore casinos
By Muhammad Cohen

SINGAPORE - When the Sands Macao opened in 2004, Asia's first Las Vegas-style casino prompted an extraordinary boom for Macau and casino owner Las Vegas Sands (LVS). Thereafter, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reversed decades of ruling party opposition to approve two casino resorts, hoping to emulate Macau's and LVS's success.

Macau and LVS are now both reeling as the world's economies take a turn for the worse, and some analysts forecast Singapore's integrated resorts (IRs), the first due to open at the end of this year, may be following in those footsteps. Conceived in prosperity to win a competitive bidding process that attracted the world's top gaming operators and contracted during a regional construction wave, Singapore's IRs will be the world's most expensive casino resorts constructed, costing up to US$6 billion. The global economic downturn, and falling revenue at Macau's casinos, now cast dark shadows over those heady plans.

A further shadow was cast by Taiwan's parliament this week when it voted to legalize gambling on offshore islands, paving the way for an alternative destination for gamblers in the region. AMZ Holdings, a United Kingdom-listed property development company, is poised to build the island's first casino, and hopes to agree with an international gaming group a joint venture to develop on a site it owns, the Financial Times reported.

Taiwan officials have indicated that two or three gaming licenses will be issued once subsidiary legislation is passed, and two state-owned sites have been set aside for potential development, the report said. The first casino is expected to open its doors for business in 2013.

The Singapore resorts will need to produce annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $1 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the industry and specifics of the two projects, who asked not to be named. That's nearly double the EBITDA at the world's most successful casino, the source contends.

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[DerekLeung]

PAP can always dream !

 

[DerekLeung]

[COLOR="_______"]Always a bit too late, just like 3 decades of forgotten development ![/COLOR]

 

[rainnix]

The burning question is: "Is our casinos going to help us improve our economy, since all out neighbouring countries have casino(s) of their own. What is so special of our peesai casino when Malaysia, Macau, Taiwan are having the same thing?"

 

[jw5]

The burning question is: "Is our casinos going to help us improve our economy, since all out neighbouring countries have casino(s) of their own. What is so special of our peesai casino when Malaysia, Macau, Taiwan are having the same thing?"

Must pay $100 just to get in?

 

[char_jig_kar]

spore's integrated resort costing six billions to build?? wah biang eh...

 

[Shi Jin]

I am suddenly reminded of Haw Par Villa Theme Park, Tang Dynasty Village and the Malay Village. :(

 

[0939]

Next will be the Singapore Flyers

 

[red amoeba]

Singapore will be threatened very much because taiwan is nearer to China mainland and the Chinese will find it more interesting to visit the casinos on the outlying islands before hopping onto Taiwan for tours.

Unless China and taiwan relationships deterioriate, I expect Taiwan's casino to do well. Don't forget, Taiwan is nearer to US than Singapore - it is more accessible for US people to go Asia for casinos (if they are sick of Las Vegas).

For singapore, we can hope to catch the big fish from Indonesia bah...but we can never only rely on one source of gamblers...we need to attract more...but with Taiwan also developing, the attractiveness to Chinese will be lesser.