Singapore to Receive Nation’s First Casino
According to reports, the Asian city state of Singapore will be getting its very first casino thanks to the success of Malaysian casino company Genting Singapore PLC. This move beats out a similar attempt by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s attempt to put a luxurious casino in downtown Singapore. The license will allow the facility to be possibly open by the upcoming Lunar New Year, a huge change for Singapore which has never before offered gambling for its citizens and tourists since gambling has not been legal there for decades. Since the casino industry in Asia is growing at an incredible rate, many companies are waging a hard battle against the kings of the Asian casino market in Macau, a world famous gambling destination. Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines have all gotten in on the action, trying to get their own share of this rapidly expanding market, each working to find a crucial edge over their competition.
With China and India developing so rapidly, those countries are seeing huge numbers of tourists head for the smaller Asian countries, particularly those in island zones. Singapore in particular is not keen on its citizens taking part in the casinos, but welcomes the activity for tourists as a way to bring money into the city state budget. The Casino Regulatory Authority in charge of making the decision believes that the facility might be the first in a number of similar ventures designed to help the booming Singapore economy have a fallback in the event that anything goes awry in the hi tech sector, a part of the economy that Singapore relies heavily on.