Sands Not Looking For High Rollers
Las Vegas Sands (LVS: 19.50 +1.14%) plans to avoid paying commission fees to junket operators in the Chinese city of Macau, by focusing on local gamblers instead of high rollers, when they open Marina Bay Sands in Singapore later this year.
COO Michael Leven said that disclosure rules would probably deter all but a few Singaporean junket operators from seeking a license and that the casino will focus on drawing patrons to the 600 gaming tables and 1,500 slots from closer areas, like Indonesia and Malaysia.
“We are building our organization on the anticipation that we do no junket business,” Leven said. “The gaming intentions of the people who live within an hour-and-a-half’s flight of Singapore are very significant.”
Singapore hopes to attract 17 million visitors and triple annual tourism revenue to S$30 billion ($21.4 billion U.S.) by 2015.
Other restrictions being implemented by gaming regulators call for gamblers to declare an expected amount of potential loss before hitting the tables, once that amount has been reached the National Council on Problem Gambling expects them to stop wagering or seek counseling if they wish to continue.
“We encourage those who want to set spending limits on their casino gambling to make use of the pre-commitment system by informing the casino staff before they start playing,” council Chairman Lim Hock San was quoted by the Weekend Today newspaper as saying. “This will help empower them to exercise discretion for their own gambling habits.”
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