Singapore Casinos Up 3.8% To $6bn In 2013
February 26, 2014 12:58 pmSingapore has confirmed its position as the world’s third biggest gambling market after its 2013 casino figures revealed a 3.8% rise in gambling revenues to $6.077 billion, compared to the $5.85 billion it generated in 2012. The Southeast Asian island country is now only slightly behind the Las Vegas Strip which took $6.5 billion last year, while both markets are dwarfed in comparison to Macau which generated a massive $45.2 billion in 2013.
Singapore has just two casinos, namely The Marina Bay Sands (Las Vegas Sands Corp) whose revenue rose 6.6% to $3.135 billion in 2013, and the Genting Group’s Resorts World Sentosa, which posted a more modest 1% rise in revenues to $2.942 billion. Both casinos opened their doors in 2010, and interestingly many analysts at the time predicted Singapore would eventually surpass the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s second largest gaming market. That now seems unlikely to occur as in spite of its high-end market continuing to grow, Singapore’s mass-market business has eased off considerably.
“Generally speaking, the mass-market story in Singapore has now entered into a flattish period at best. The VIP story is a bit rosier, although we don’t think VIP (play) in Singapore is likely to be as robust as it is in Macau,” commented Union Gaming Group managing director Grant Govertsen.
Nevertheless, in the future there may be some extra competition on its way for Singapore as Japan is currently considering casino legislation which if passed could eventually generate up to $40 billion in annual revenues. The positive news for Singapore, however, is that all being well Japan is unlikely to start licensing casinos before 2016, with the country of 127.6 million people then hoping to have at least one casino up and running before the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2020.
“The good news for Singapore is that we don’t view any other Asian markets threatening its hold as the No. 2 gross-gaming revenue market in Asia,” explained Grant Govertsen.