VIE 29 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 03:25hs.
ASIAN GIANT

Genting Singapore strong suitor for Japan

The current business head of Genting Singapore (operator of the Resorts World Sentosa casino), Lim Kok Thay, said the group will be a “strong candidate” of winning a casino licence in Japan.

Japan took the first steps to creating a casino industry following the legalisation in December of such business, and giant Genting Singapore bets on entering that new market.

"We are encouraged by the passing of the IR [Integrated Resorts] Promotion Bill in Japan and will be positioning the group as a strong candidate for the bidding process,” wrote Lim in Genting Singapore’s 2016 annual report, filed with the Singapore Exchange on Monday. "If we are successful in bidding… this project will create significant value to the growth of the group,” he added.

Brokerage CLSA has estimated a Japanese casino industry could be worth US$ 10 billion annually even if only two resorts were permitted. A number of Japanese politicians and academics have referred to the possibility of Japan adopting a "Singapore-style” form of regulation for a home-grown industry, including the possibility of an entry levy.

As long ago as 2014, Genting Singapore – which has had experience since 2010 of operating Singapore’s casino entry levy imposed on locals, and the city-state’s extensive system of measures to mitigate the risk to locals of problem gambling in casinos – set up a raft of subsidiaries in Japan.

A September report from banking group UBS AG said Genting Singapore had "kept its cash balance high with the hope that it could secure a gaming licence in Japan”.

The Genting group – via a range of units – has one of the most geographically diverse portfolios of casino rights of any participant in the industry. It has developed and operates casinos in, respectively: its home base of Malaysia; neighbouring Singapore; the Philippines; the United States; the Bahamas and the United Kingdom.

The group also runs – via its Genting Hong Kong Ltd unit – what are effectively ‘stateless’ casinos via cruise ships, making use of international maritime law to conduct gaming business only when on the high seas.

Source: GMB / GGR Asia