Malaysian investments specialist Maybank Investment Bank Berhad has reportedly predicted that gross gambling revenues for Asian casino operator Genting Singapore Limited will likely remain at least partially depressed for at least the next three years.

According to a Tuesday report from Asia Gaming Brief, the corporate financing specialist used an official filing to detail that the casino firm’s ongoing slump precipitated by the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic from late-2019 is forecast to continue until the end of 2024 owing to increased regional competition and an expected lack of gamblers from mainland China.

Recent results:

A subsidiary of Genting Malaysia Berhad, Genting Singapore Limited is responsible for the giant gambling-friendly Resorts World Sentosa development in Singapore and saw its aggregated revenues for the final six months of 2021 decline by 17% year-on-year to about $381.5 million as its associated gaming receipts crashed by 16% to sit just shy of $267.8 million. This took the company’s resultant half-year profit down by 49% to approximately $70.8 million although the figure for the full twelve months rocketed by an impressive 164% to roughly $136.5 million.

Three-year trough:

Nevertheless, Samuel Yin Shao Yang from Maybank Investment Bank Berhad reportedly disclosed that he expects Genting Singapore Limited to experience an around 2% dip in aggregated earnings for 2024. This purportedly came after the analyst had improved his earlier forecast covering the next two financial years owing to Singapore’s earlier-than-expected decision to open its borders to outside tourists from last month.

Evolving environment:

Yin reportedly pronounced that ‘China has changed the Asian gaming landscape’ with the regional VIP market now likely to be seriously hurt by this nation’s March of 2021 decision to make cross-border gambling a crime punishable by an up to ten-year prison term. The expert purportedly went on to divulge that Genting Singapore Limited will probably moreover be negatively impacted by increased competition in the lucrative premium mass-market segment from newer facilities in Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Complicated contingencies:

Singapore-listed Genting Singapore Limited reportedly earlier pledged to spend upwards of $3.3 billion in order to expand its Resorts World Sentosa property via the addition of a plethora of non-gaming amenities including an enlarged aquarium. However, Yin purportedly noted that this plan could be put at risk should the nearby nation of Thailand open up its casino market and begin attracting large numbers of Chinese mass-market gamblers.

Reportedly read a statement from Yin…

“Even without integrated casino resorts, a whopping eleven million Chinese visited Thailand in 2019. Should Thai integrated casino resorts materialize, we would wonder how financially viable would be the $3.3 billion Resorts World Sentosa expansion.”