Fitch Rating Inc., a statistical rating organization, has released a casino market forecast for the year 2018. According to the forecast sketched in report, the casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Singapore is likely to show a positive trend. The same trend was observed in the first half of year 2017.
Alex Bumazhny, Senior Director, led the team whose report was published on Monday. The report noted, “Singapore GGR grew by around 10 percent year-on-year in first half 2017, after falling by around 30 percent over 2015 to 2016.”
Fitch Rating Inc. added in their report, “We expect GGR to continue to grow in 2018, driven by sustained growth in visitor arrivals (first eight months of 2017 up 4 percent; 2016 up 8 percent).”
“We do not believe competitive pressures in the Singapore market will increase in the near term as new licences are unlikely,” the ratings house added.
Earlier this year, the Fitch Rating Inc had reported a forecast of net gaming revenue, at the two main casino resorts in Singapore, of US $4 billion for the year 2017 compared to the last year due to ‘weak’ VIP participation in the game.
Sanfor C. Bernstein Ltd, a brokerage firm, intimated earlier this month that it was revising its market-wide forecast of Singapore Casino VIP gross gaming revenue by 18 percent for year 2017.
The brokerage firm believes that the combined VIP revenue generation from Marina Bay Sands, the gaming resort controlled by Las Vegas Sands Corp, and Resorts World Sentosa, operated by Genting Singapore Plc is likely to increase this year. The current year forecast is revised to SGD 2.35 billion (US $1.73 billion) as compared to the last year revenue of SGD 2.00 billion. The rise is expected in the revenue generation by Marina Bay Sands VIP attraction to it resort.
“Fitch believes Chinese tourism expenditure is a key driver of gaming performance in Southeast Asia. Chinese visitors were the largest segment by nationality in Singapore in the first eight months of 2017, at 19 percent of total arrivals,” reasoned Fitch Ratings Inc. for its positive forecast
Mr Bumazhny and his team added: “We feel VIP tourism across the region will continue to recover, and ongoing growth in mass-market gaming tourism will support regional expansion and Australian [casino resort] construction. Overall, we view the Asia-Pacific market as under-penetrated, at least in the mass-market segment.”
