Making or breaking the house

Reports continue to filter out of Singapore of some very, very big numbers being dropped by higher rollers at that city’s two new casinos.

Back in August Henry Quek reportedly went on a S$26 million ($20 million) spree at Resorts World.  We thought that was pretty big.

Apparently not.

The word is that since then a high roller from Sabah in Malaysia lost a cool S$50 million and a local player said to be on Singapore’s top 40 rich list has lost …wait for it…

S$100 million (around $75 million).

It seems Singapore’s 2 new mega casinos have had a real of luck on the high stakes tables – yet to be burnt by big winning streaks.  But they will come – if history is any indication.

I remember back in 1997 Crown Casino opened in Melbourne, Australia.  It had cost almost $1.5 billion to construct and was to be marketed to Asian high rollers as the region’s premium high stakes gaming house.  The high rollers did come, but they almost sent the casino broke in its first year of operation.

A six week, $55 million winning spree from a handful of players (including one $12 million winner) forced the casino to have  to  raise cash from a rights issue and contributed to its share price falling from $2.72 to 63 cents.

Ironically, Kerry Packer helped save the casino by increasing his stake in it to 22%.  I say ironically, because Packer is widely believed to have bankrupted at least one casino by winning too much during a hot streak.

Fact is, there are some players with pockets deeper than the house and if they do have a run of luck, even casinos the size of the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa will feel the pinch.

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