Sheldon Adelson’s Singapore venture, the Marina Bay Sands, has been approved to operate in the city-state for three more years.
The city state’s Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) announced last week that it has renewed the casino license of Las Vegas Sands Corp’s subsidiary, Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd., which operates the integrated resort in Singapore.
The renewal, which went into effect last April 26, followed an assessment by the casino regulator that the Marina Bay Sands conforms to its rules. CRA also took into consideration the “independent opinion of an evaluation panel,” the regulator said in a statement.
Aside from Marina Bay Sands, the state regulator also renewed the casino license of Resorts World Sentosa for another three years back in February.
In 2007, the Singaporean government issued a casino license to Genting Singapore, which operates Resorts World Sentosa, and Las Vegas Sands to operate one integrated resort each in the city state. The exclusivity period for those licenses is set to expire next year, but analysts at Fitch Ratings believed the government is “unlikely” to grant new licenses after 2017 due to “potentially higher frequency of problem gaming with the local population, and the muted outlook for the inbound tourism in Singapore.”
Marina Bay Sands reported overall revenue down 23 percent, while gaming revenue was off 28.3 percent. The property’s VIP tables reported an abysmal 1.43 percent VIP win rate, well below the theoretical norm and less than half the 3.41 percent recorded in the same quarter last year.
Genting Singapore dissolves Macau unit
Meanwhile, Genting Singapore recently announced that it has decided to let go of its Macau subsidiary, Genting Star (Macau) Ltd.
In a filing with the Singapore Stock Exchange, the casino operator said it has dissolved and liquidated Genting Star, which it acquired in September 2015. Genting Star, along with other units of the Genting Group, was originally planned to be involved in the development of a casino hotel located opposite the old Casino Lisboa in Macau.
However, the Genting units pulled out of the project due to concerns raised by the casino regulators in Singapore, who were seeking “clarification” from the Genting Group over the deals in Macau and its links with Stanley Ho’s SJM Holdings Ltd.
In its statement last week, Genting Singapore said the dissolution of Genting Star (Macau) “is not expected to have any material impact” on the company’s net tangible assets and earnings per share for the financial year ending December 31, 2016.
