Sands’ Singapore Casino to Avoid Fee-Earning Junket Operators
The Las Vegas Sands Corporation is not depending upon any sort of third parties to be the momentum needed to bring in gamblers who wager large sums at its Singapore Casino, which opened in April. This enabled it to steer clear of the commissions it pays to the “junket operators” in Macau, China.
There are disclosure rules in Singapore, and these rules will probably be the thing that will keep most Singaporean junket operators from attempting to get a license. This is the point Chief Operating Officer Michael Leven wanted to get across to participants in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Gaming Conference, which was held in Las Vegas on January 28 of this year. The Marina Bay Sands believes that they will attract patrons from the city-state, and from Indonesia and Malaysia as well.
Leven stated that his organization does not anticipate doing any sort of junket business, as the gaming objectives of the people who reside a short flight away from Singapore are quite important. Singapore has stated publically that it hopes to be able to attract around 17 million visitors, which would bump up annual tourist revenue and hopefully triple it, for a total of S$30 billion by the year 2015 with the opening of Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Plc unit’s Resorts World Sentosa.
The Singapore National Council on Problem Gambling would like for residents to curtail losses by deciding how much they can comfortably lose before they even reach the gaming table. Once gamers reach that limit, they may need to stop gaming, or see a counselor if they want to continue to play.
Council Chairman Lim Hock San stated that they promote the use of the pre-commitment system. This takes place when gamers who want to set a spending limit on their casino gambling tell the casino staff about that limit before starting to play. Lim Hock San claims that this will help give gamers the will power needed to exercise discretion when it comes to their individual gambling habits.
The only way casino customers will be able to gamble on credit is to pay a S$100,000 deposit before playing. Both Singaporeans and the permanent island residents will have to pay S$100 to go into either casino.
Surveys have revealed that 58% of the adult residents of Singapore had taken part in some form of gambling in a year’s time, with only 2.1% of these people had symptoms of pathological gambling.
