Singapore Bets on Casino Gambling

The government hopes to boost tourism with two new casinos but will try to keep local gambling in check by charging Singaporeans a steep admission

By Frederik Balfour

Singapore has long enjoyed a reputation as the cleanest and least corrupt city in Southeast Asia, which may be why multinationals such as GE Energy (GE), Citibank (C), and Pfizer (PFE) have made it their home base for the region. But while ­Singapore offers the kind of security that corporate strategic planners like, it's also, well, a bit stiff—a place where chewing gum can only be sold by pharmacies and defacing public property with graffiti is punishable by a half-dozen swift strokes of the cane.

Now, Singapore is letting its hair down. For the past two years, the city has closed the streets downtown during the last weekend of September to create a Formula One Grand Prix circuit, with drivers thundering through 23 turns among the skyscrapers and colonial buildings along the waterfront. Last month's event also included outdoor concerts by Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas, and Gwen Stefani in a downtown park.

The next attraction is a pair of casinos. The $5.4 billion Marina Bay Sands, built by Las Vegas Sands (LVS) on reclaimed land across from the Formula One circuit, will open in the first half of next year. The complex will have a 161,000-square-foot casino, two theaters offering Broadway- and Bollywood-style shows, a science museum, a luxury mall with tenants including Louis Vuitton (LVMH.PA) and Chanel, a convention center, and 2,500 hotel rooms and suites.

Universal Theme Park

In February on Sentosa Island, 10 miles from downtown, Genting Singapore, the gaming and property arm 54% owned by Malaysia's Genting Group, plans to open the $4.2 billion Resorts World Sentosa, with six hotels and a Universal Studios theme park featuring a Shrek castle, 24 attractions including the world's tallest dueling roller coasters that snake in and out of each other's tracks, and a marine park. On Oct. 2, Genting Singapore launched a rights issue raising $1.2 billion, tapping shareholder enthusiasm that has driven the stock up 160% this year.

The hope is these sprawling resorts will help goose Singapore's tourism industry, which accounts for about 5.8% of gross domestic product, about the same as neighboring Thailand. Casinos in Asia have proven to be hugely successful in attracting visitors, as Macao's experience shows. The former Portuguese colony boasts more gaming revenues than the Las Vegas Strip and has become an important profit driver for U.S. casino bosses such as Steve Wynn. His Wynn Macau raised $1.84 billion in a Hong Kong listing that started trading on Oct. 9.

Las Vegas Sands is looking to raise as much as $2 billion in a similar listing of its Macao casinos before the end of the year.

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