Singapore casinos add us$ 324 million to state coffers

The two casinos helped Singapore’s gross domestic product expand 14.7 % in 2010, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said yesterday. Last year’s economic growth probably made the city of 5 million people the fastest- growing economy in the world after Qatar, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

The casinos opened in Singapore last year after a four- decade ban was lifted to help boost tourism revenue and shed what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called an “unexciting image.” In 2002, Lee rejected a proposal for casinos, saying they could lead to “undesirable activities” such as money laundering, illegal lending and organized crime.

A total of 31,316 Singaporeans were banned from the casinos under exclusion orders, Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said today in Parliament.

Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands may post us$ 2.8 billion in casino revenue in 2010 and us$ 5.5 billion this year, the Today newspaper reported on December 21, citing PricewaterhouseCoopers. The “outstanding results” at the Marina Bay Sands contributed to Las Vegas Sands’ third-quarter earnings, which topped analysts’ estimates, Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said on October 28.

Singapore’s government in September stopped all bus shuttle services between local town centers and the casinos, saying promotional efforts should be confined to tourists. The Southeast Asian nation, which is planning to review its rules governing casinos, has also set up the Casino Crime Investigation Branch and a National Council on Problem Gambling.

“As both casinos have been operating for less than a year, it would be premature to draw a conclusion on the impact of the casinos on local problem gambling or the adequacy of our social safeguards,” Balakrishnan said.

The government plans to stop the casinos from “asymmetric and unfair publicity” where their customers’ gaming winnings are publicized on their websites, Balakrishnan said.