London’s newest entertainment venue attracted four times as many visitors as had been expected over its first weekend in operation. Visitors to the Aspers Casino at Westfield Stratford City embraced the opportunity of a 24-hour facility to gamble, drink and carry on for the entire weekend. In all, 30,000 took advantage of the hospitality on offer at the venue that overlooks the home of next year’s Olympic Games in London. Most are simply impressed that it’s open at the time of night that only the hardiest is still out partying. Luckily, customers and those that work in all parts of the gambling industry frequent the witching hour on a regular basis meaning this place will always be abuzz at all hours.
The other vital stats include 4,500 pints, 500 cocktails being sold over the first three days as well as 18,000 meals and drinks. They’ve had 6,000 customers sign up for loyalty cards and it’s likely to hold it’s attraction for some time as the centre of the iGaming universe wakes up to what is an impressive venue.
The Far East’s casino industry is what venues like Aspers should be aspiring to and it’s no wonder as Singapore looks like it’ll be earning a casino revenue of US$7billion in 2012. A report by Citi Group found the revenue for both Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa is expected to hit US$6.9bn next year, an increase of 13% compared with this year. It remains a way off Macau although Sin City is well within the republic’s sights with Marina Bay Sands expected to “continue to outperform Resorts World Sentosa, leading to over 50 per cent market share in 2012”, according to Citi.
