At Singapore casino Resorts World Sentosa’s Lunar New Year lucky draw for high rollers earlier this year, the biggest prize was a bottle of Martell Cognac. Across the harbour at rival Marina Bay Sands, the top sweepstakes winner walked away with a new Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 worth much more.
It is one of the incidents that has made the casino duopoly in one of the world’s top gambling venues more lopsided in the past few years. That is putting pressure on the Sentosa Island resort, whose gaming licence is due for renewal in the coming months.
The Southeast Asian financial hub has seen a strong post-Covid rebound in tourist arrivals and an increase in wealthy gamblers from neighbouring countries and China. It has also taken some business from Macau, which has been affected by Chinese government crackdowns on casino junkets and illegal money-exchange activities.
The gains in Singapore have been heavily skewed towards Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands. Its casino revenues for the first half of 2026 topped US$2.1 billion, while Resorts World Sentosa’s comparable numbers were less than a third of that.
The struggle to attract more high rollers even in Singapore’s growing wealth hub underscores the challenges facing Resorts World Sentosa’s operator, Genting Singapore.
Back in November 2024, Singapore’s Gambling Regulatory Authority called the Sentosa resort’s tourism performance “unsatisfactory”, and granted it a two-year casino licence that took effect in February 2025 instead of the usual three years.