Australia’s Queensland state may
issue as many as three new casino licenses as it seeks to spur
tourism with integrated resorts modeled after Singapore’s Marina
Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.
The state will welcome applications for redevelopment of a
riverfront site in central Brisbane that includes an existing
casino operated by Echo Entertainment Group Ltd. (EGP), and consider
allowing two more licenses elsewhere in the state, Premier
Campbell Newman said today in an e-mailed statement.
The move challenges Echo, which has three of Queensland’s
four current licenses and accounted for 97 percent of casino
spending in the state in the 12 months through June, according
to data compiled by Bloomberg. Neighboring New South Wales state
agreed in July to examine plans by billionaire James Packer’s
Crown Ltd. (CWN) for a casino in Sydney that will challenge Echo’s
monopoly in that city.
“Queensland can sustain up to three new integrated resort
casinos,” Newman said in the statement, referring to complexes
containing gaming floors, hotels and entertainment and retail
precincts. “The casino is only part of these major
developments, which are tourism draw cards in their own right.”
The developments “could lead to similar benefits for
Queensland” as those that Singapore has seen from Genting
Singapore Plc (GENS)’s Resorts World Sentosa and Las Vegas Sands
Corp.’s Marina Bay Sands, Newman said.
Singapore Revival
Singapore visitor numbers reversed a decline over the
previous two years and rose more than 20 percent after the
resorts opened in 2010, he said.
In the Gold Coast, where Echo gets the bulk of its
Queensland sales at Jupiters casino, the city council is
examining four proposals to build a cruise ship terminal and
possible casino resort on Broadwater Island, an artificial
breakwater in the city’s lagoon. Echo climbed 1 cent today to
A$2.72, trimming its decline for the year to 21 percent.
Proposals have been submitted by groups including Skycity
Entertainment Group Ltd., Brookfield Asset Management (BAM), Zhuhai
Ridong Group Ltd., and China State Construction Engineering
Corp. (601668)
In the Great Barrier Reef town of Cairns, Hong Kong-based
businessman Tony Fung is proposing a A$4.2 billion ($4 billion)
resort including nine luxury hotels, 1,200 apartments and 135
villas.
Reef Casino Trust (RCT), which operates Cairns’ existing casino,
is the only such operator other than Echo currently active in
Queensland. There have been no new casino license granted in
Australia since 1996.
To contact the reporter on this story:
David Fickling in Sydney at
dfickling@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephanie Wong at
swong139@bloomberg.net
Queensland Mulls 3 New Casinos in Tourist Push Echoing Singapore
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