Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming February 2015 32 Cover Story Strict gaming regulation is rooted in Singapore domestic politics By Muhammad Cohen O n 25th April, 2010, the top executives at Marina Bay Sands were on tenterhooks as their careers hung on light bulbs and cutlery. Two days before the scheduled opening of Las Vegas Sands’ integrated resort in Singapore, the leadership team told LVS Chairman Sheldon Adelson to board his private jet and fly across the Pacific, even though MBS lacked the gaming license it needed to open successfully. License approval depended on Singapore’s Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA), which had dispatched a team of auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers to determine whether the 581,400-square- meter resort was 50.1% complete, as required for licensing. Auditors counted light bulbs, chairs and cutlery. At Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa, auditors had counted aquarium fish. Those examples typify Singapore’s fastidious gaming regulation that includes an entry levy on Singapore citizens, a virtual ban on junket promoters and stringent casino marketing restrictions, backed by fines—which have amounted to S$3.46 million ($2.6 million) since 2010—that are now stipulated to go as high as 10% of annual gross gaming revenue for serious violations. The approach doesn’t simply reflect Singapore’s regulatory reflex but its domestic politics. “Having IRs was probably among the most controversial decisions the Singapore government ever made,” says Spectrum Asia CEO Paul Bromberg, whose firm consulted for local authorities on gaming regulation. To help allay public doubts and some ministers’ opposition to casino legalization, the government promised stringent social safeguards to address problem gambling, protect the financially vulnerable, curb crime and protect Singapore’s reputation. “In the last five years you’ve seen that the government has not let up in terms of its scrutiny of how the IRs operate and their social impact,” says Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at Singapore’s To help allay public doubts and some ministers’ opposition to casino legalization, the government promised stringent social safeguards to address problem gambling, protect the financially vulnerable, curb crime and protect Singapore’s reputation. House Rules