Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | October 2010 28 politics comes into play in that way, the operators’ ability to influence government policy could be considerably reduced. Achilles’ heel The area of the casinos’ operations that is potentially most vulnerable to curtailment action is the high roller or VIP segment. Recent claims that junket operators from outside Singapore are masquerading as players and sub-letting chips to their customers to get round the city’s tough probity checks on Macau-style gambling agents are difficult to prove. But the CRA is well aware of the claims, and could potentially seek amendments to the Casino Control Act or its attached gambling credit regulations that could involve any VIP player being subjected to detailed background checks. This could have the effect at the very least of making the casinos’ management of the VIP segment more bureaucratic and cumbersome, potentially depressing volumes of play. If the rules of engagement in either the mass market or the VIP market are changed by the government, it could have the overall effect of depressing the profits of the IRs, or at least reducing them to the more conservative estimates quoted by some financial analysts before RWS opened in February. Red sky in the morning History has shown that whenever Singapore has embarked on a social or economic reform, it has always retained ownership and control of that process, rather than allowing commercial interests to dictate policy. There is no reason to suppose that the casino liberalisation policy will be an exception to this rule. The writing is on the wall for the industry. When a government minister in another recent speech to parliament referred to the “profit motivation”of the two casinos, he did so not in a flattering way. Those who simply think Singapore is another Asian ‘pot of gold’ for the global casino industry may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Right now the medium range forecast is for storm clouds gathering over both IRs. What’s still to be determined is quite how much rain will fall and how hard. The author is a gaming executive with extensive experience of the regional industry Singapore Outlook Singapore’s casinos might prefer to police themselves