Singapore and its casinos flying

Any doubts that the government of Singapore was being overly optimistic with tourism and economic growth targets expected to be driven by its two new casinos must now be fading pretty fast.

Singapore flying

Here are some pretty striking statistics…

• Two years ago Singapore was in the middle of its worst recession since 1965.  In the first six months of 2010 this same economy grew a staggering 18%.  It is currently growing at an annualized rate of over 25% and is in the running to be world’s fastest growing economy (second only to Qatar).
• From high unemployment levels 2 years ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong now says his country needs around 100,000 foreign workers to cool a labour market that is in danger of overheating.
• Monthly tourist arrivals hit the 1 million mark for the first time ever in July and the official target of 17 million tourists annually by 2015 (more than double numbers at the time the target was set in 2005) now appears it will be eclipsed comfortably.

Of course the casinos can’t take all the credit for the economic turn around. Largely casino-free Malaysia and India have also rebounded strongly from GFC lows, although nowhere near as spectacularly as Singapore.

Casinos flying

The two casinos at the strategic hub of all this activity are doing very well.

Resorts World Sentosa recently reported a quarterly (Apr-Jun 2010) profit of US$291 million to the Singapore stock exchange.  Meanwhile Marina Bay has been acclaimed by analysts as the new jewel in the struggling Sands empire, recording an EBITDA  of US$94 million for its first 2 months of operation.

The results have lead a gaming analyst from DMG & Partners to proclaim, “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.”

Big bucks changing hands

Stories have already started to emerge of the enormous amounts of cash changing hands on the gaming floors of Resorts Word and Marina Bay.  According to a report in asia one Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou dropped S$2 million playing baccarat at up to S$200,000 a hand at the Marina Bay over the weekend.  The star’s management have denied the report.

On the same weekend, an unnamed Indonesian businessman hit a S$2.3 million jackpot at Resorts World Sentosa according to the Jakarta Post.

But the player who has all the tongues wagging is Henry Quek, a high roller and native of Singapore who runs a multinational seafood distribution business when he’s not gambling.  Henry went on a gambling spree of Terrence Watanabe proportions at Resorts World Sentosa that ended with him being S$26 million in the red!  Henry is suing the casino for allowing him to extend credit beyond an originally agreed $2 million.

What were those lines from Sinatra’s This Town again?

“This town is a make-you town,
Or a break-you-town and bring-you-down town”