Singapore Casinos To Surpass Las Vegas By 2012

This year the island country of Singapore started permitting gambling within its borders after its two major resort developments were officially opened.
The country was looking to diversify its economic sources of income, and so roughly US$10 billion was spent on developing two enormous casinos complexes, The Genting Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands.
Despite Genting Singapore’s casino opening in February and Marina Bay Sands in May, the casinos managed to generate a combined $4 billion win for the second quarter of operations.
Commenting on the impressive results, DMG & Partners analysts stated:
“Singapore is already the second-largest casino market in Asia after Macau and could potentially overtake the Las Vegas strip as the second largest casino market in the world after Macau in the next two to three years.”
Las Vegas was suplanted by Macau as the world’s biggest gambling resort in 2006, and now Singapore’s transformation from conservative Asian retreat to gambling hub is threatening to further erode Vegas’ ailing gambling industry.
With a target of 13 million people a year visiting Singapore’s casino resorts, statistics are showing an increasing number of visitors from countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Korea, China and Japan.
The increasing popularity of the resort with many Asian countries is already having an impact on Vegas’ overseas visitor numbers and, as the Dean of Nevada University Las Vegas’ Singapore campus, Andy Nazarechuk explains:
“Las Vegas will continue to attract (Asian visitors) but instead of the player making two or three trips to Las Vegas in the year they may make only one trip and the other two trips may be more closer regionally.”
With the more bullish reports on Singapore’s gaming resorts predicting around $5 billion in revenue for 2011, Las Vegas will have much work to do if it is to maintain even its place as the world’s second largest gambling destination.