With Casinos Set to Open, Singapore Rolls The Dice
When Las Vegas Sands threw a party last year to celebrate a milestone in the construction of its gambling resort on the shores of Singapore's Marina Bay, it was a lavish affair. A large white tent was erected on the site, where hundreds of reporters gathered to watch CEO Sheldon Adelson celebrate the roof being laid on the resort's three interlinked towers. As bongo drums pounded, Adelson, 76, turned to the architect of the project to thank him, but not before joking, "Couldn't you have designed it to look as good without the cost?"
Just how much money has been poured in — and how daunting the challenge of recouping that money will be — are becoming clear as the first of Singapore's long-awaited casinos prepares to throw open its doors this month. Citigroup estimates that Resorts World Sentosa, slated to open in mid-February and which will include six hotels and a Universal Studios theme park, will have run a construction tab of roughly $4.5 billion. Adelson says his showpiece project on Marina Bay, boasting Singapore's largest hotel and one of Asia's biggest convention spaces, will cost roughly $5.5 billion by the time it's expected to open around April.
(Read about Singapore's turning point in the global recession.)
Even by the opulent standards of the gaming world, analysts say these are giant sums. "The Singapore casinos are by far the most expensive ones in the region," says Gabriel Chan, head of Asian gaming research for Credit Suisse, who points out that an average casino in Macau costs roughly half as much. The Venetian in Las Vegas, completed by Adelson more than a decade ago, cost roughly $1.5 billion — less than a third of his current Singapore project.
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1963306,00.html
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