| |
The
Business Times, 24 Jun 04
Harrah's to meet S'pore officials on casino
HARRAH'S Entertainment Inc, the No 2 US casino company, will hold
talks with Singapore officials today to discuss setting up a casino
in the city, senior vice-president Jan Jones said. Vienna-based Casinos
Austria International is also interested in a venture with the government,
chief executive Frank McFadden said. Mr McFadden and Mr Jones were
speaking on the sidelines of a gaming conference in Singapore.
Singapore has said it may include a casino in a resort and residential
development being planned for one of its offshore islands, to lure
more tourists and business travellers. Harrah's, Las Vegas Sands Inc,
and Macanese tycoon Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau are among
foreign companies that have expressed interest in the project.
'Singapore has a huge market area, not only with the population base,
but with additional millions of customers within very close proximity,'
Mr Jones said. Over 2.5 billion people live within seven hours flying
time from Singapore, which currently only allows lotteries and betting
on horse-racing, and which may restrict some of its four million people
from visiting any casino in the city.
The government is considering allowing a casino to woo more tourists,
as manufacturing and other jobs are lured to lower-wage countries
such as China. Some 651,860 people visited the city in April, more
than triple the number in the year-earlier period.
'The potential is in Singapore,' Mr McFadden said. 'Its infrastructure
can support the casino by extending quality tourism, while the air
links, hotels and other entertainment facilities are already here.'
Rising wealth in Asia is attracting gaming companies, especially as
China doesn't permit casinos except in Macau. Las Vegas Sands Inc
last month opened a new casino in Macau, and Sands president William
Weidner said the company would hold talks with Singapore. 'The whole
objective here is to attract Chinese tourists who are a lot more keen
in gaming,' said Nizam Idris, deputy head of research at IDEAglobal
in Singapore. 'Right now, there's not a lot of choice for Chinese
tourists, who can only visit Macau or Genting.'
The casino operators called for the Singapore government to establish
clear policies to regulate the gambling industry. - Bloomberg |
|
