Genting Singapore Ltd. says its VIP casino base may never return to pre-pandemic levels due to several factors, including the Chinese government’s crackdown on “cross-border gambling” by its citizens.
Genting saw profits plummet 90 percent year-on-year for 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting limits on business and travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to GGRAsia, it was the firm’s worst year since Resorts World Sentosa property opened in Singapore in 2010.
“Genting Singapore… does not expect the VIP market to recover to pre-Covid-19 levels due to China cracking down on anyone enticing mainland Chinese to gamble overseas,” agreed analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang of Maybank IB Research.
Resorts World Sentosa’s gaming revenue for 2020 fell by 56.7 percent from 2019 to SGD700.8 million (US$528.5 million), with most of that coming in the second half of the year, when Singapore eased its lockdown measures.
Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky and Tianjiao Yu said that, without a return of international tourists, 2021 would see “minimal improvement from second-half 2020.”
“With the increasing restrictions the Chinese government is putting on overseas gambling, management expects a shift away from Chinese ‘super VIPs’ towards more mass/premium mass” customers,” the analysts said.
