Gambling

Another competitor
Tribal casinos are not the only threat faced by Nevada’s gambling industry. The spread of gambling in Asia is draining off a few more customers.

The affluent city/nation of Singapore made casinos legal on Monday. Macao has already legalized the entertainment. Japan, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand are considering similar moves. Australian gambling scholar Jan McMillen told the Christian Science Monitor that the governments were acting because they saw money draining away to resorts like Las Vegas and the Gold Coast.

“The catalyst was the reform in Macao and the growing affluence of the middle classes [that] are flying to Nevada and Australia to come and gamble,” McMillen says.

Singapore will begin with two casinos to be built on the island of Sentosa, already a hotel resort served by cruise ships, and at the downtown Marina Bay. Nineteen corporations have applied to operate the casinos.

They include Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., MGM Mirage, Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd.