Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) looks set to take the honour of having Singapore’s first-ever operational casino.
Industry sources say RWS’s parent, Genting, is expected to announce the opening date for the property in a newspaper advertising campaign on 22nd January.
RWS and its market rival Marina Bay Sands, from Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), had both originally been earmarked for 2009 openings after their respective bids triumphed in the corporate beauty contests organised by the Singapore government back in 2006. Publicly, LVS is still committed to a first quarter 2010 launch for Marina Bay, though some observers think April or May is more likely. Given that Marina Bay Sands already has an unwanted track record for high profile missed deadlines, the pressure is certainly on the LVS project managers.
LVS was always the energetic hare in the race to be first to open. Not only was the Marina Bay contract awarded several months before the Sentosa one, but LVS was also very aggressive and upbeat about its timetable, touting a July 2009 opening at one stage.
RWS was much more the modest Asian tortoise, plodding doggedly along the path to project fulfilment. The cocksure LVS hare meanwhile got bogged down in, well… boggy ground along the Marina Bay shoreline And after the global credit crisis in September 2008, the project had to run the gauntlet of a shooting party of anxious bankers not sure whether to skin the Marina Bay bunny or feed it up for the profits pot later. Genting, meanwhile, with no significant pressure on its financial gearing and the ability to meet its debt payment dates without qualm, just kept going.
There is a definite first-mover advantage to be had from opening earlier, especially in light of the hefty entry fee—either S$100 per day, or S2,000 for a year—for locals. The regulars who would opt for the yearly fee would be loathe to pay it twice.
Perhaps more importantly, the two operators’ differing approaches to the deadline issue—one modest if slightly plodding, the other brash and even a little boastful at times—may reveal something deeper about their corporate cultures. That difference may have some effect in the two Singapore resorts’ performances in a predominantly Asian-focused player market in the medium to long term.
In Macau, Dr Stanley Ho’s operating company, SJM Holdings, has been building market share in a rising market served by more properties from rival companies year by year. A recent research report from Hong Kong Polytechnic University suggested SJM does well in the Macau market partly because it’s a Chinese-run company catering for other Chinese people.
Time will tell whether Genting’s Universal Studios turns out to be Singapore’s version of Hong Kong Disneyland—under loved and over hyped—or whether LVS’s Singapore ArtScience Museum will take on the role of virtuous Asian culture palace claimed by Hong Kong’s Ocean Park—the latter with its giant (leased) pandas.
A Western investor who visited RWS told Asian Gaming Intelligence recently: “Don’t think that having a Universal Studios theme park is going to make the Resorts World casino suffer. Genting already has practice at doing this kind of thing at Genting Highlands [Genting’s gaming and holiday resort in Malaysia]. There’s something for everyone. While the children are with granny or the nanny in the family areas, mum and dad can go and enjoy themselves in the casino.”
Will the Genting tortoise cross the line first in Singapore only to go into its shell, or will the LVS hare have the legs for the long haul? Time will tell.
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