Poker News – An official delegation from Singapore met earlier this month with French online gambling regulator ARJEL President Charles Coppolani to analyze France’s online gambling legislation in order to see if the French policies can be adapted to Singapore’s needs. During the meeting, the delegation led by Singapore’s Second Minister for Home Affairs and Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran and Singapore’s ambassador in Paris Tan York Chor discussed with the French regulator policies implemented to regulate online gambling in France since 2010, when ARJEL was first established. According to a press release issued by the French…

GGR Asia – Singaporeans are the world’s highest spenders on gambling, shows a new research by consultancy Global Betting and Gaming Consultants. Singaporeans spend on average US$1,376 per head on gambling a year, the results show. The Lion City topped previous leader Australia. Australians’ global gambling spend per capita currently stands at US$961. The figures cover all types of gambling, from casino to internet gambling to lotteries. The results, featured in the latest edition of the Global Gambling Report issued by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, put Canada in third place with a spend of US$494 per capita. Hong Kong comes…

Reuters – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to tour Singapore’s two lavish casino resorts on Friday as his home country toys with the idea of liberalizing casino gambling to boost tourism and attract investment. Japan, home to 128 million people and the world’s third largest economy, is widely seen as a prize market for casino operators due to its affluent population and close proximity to wealthy Asian gamblers in the region. Brokerage CLSA estimates Japan could be the world’s third biggest gambling market after Macau and the United States, raking in revenues of at least $40 billion annually…

Calvin Ayre – Singapore’s self-exclusion option, which allows citizens to voluntary ban themselves from entering the country’s two casinos, has now been expanded after the launch of a new centralized self-exclusion system. With this new system, Singaporeans can now voluntarily exclude themselves from other gambling establishments in the country, including jackpot clubs and sports betting clubs. Under the old program, citizens could only have themselves banned from entering the Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands casinos. More than 200,000 casino exclusion orders have been issued to date, of which around 153,000 are the self-exclusion variety. Currently, Singapore has 73…

Channel News Asia – The opening up of new casinos or integrated resorts in North Asia is unlikely to cannibalise the gaming industry in Singapore. Analysts Channel NewsAsia spoke with say the success of casino resorts in the city-state will continue to drive demand for similar services in other parts of Asia. First, Genting Singapore announced its entry into the Korean gaming market via a US$2.1 billion investment in Jeju together with a Chinese property developer. Then came property developer OUE and its project for an integrated entertainment resort in South Korea. The project valued at about 855 billion won,…

Business Week – Las Vegas Sands Corp. has asked Singapore authorities for more land to increase rooms at its resort in the city-state by about 60 percent after facing almost full occupancy, billionaire Chairman Sheldon Adelson says. The world’s biggest casino operator plans to add 1,500 rooms to the 2,563-room Marina Bay Sands, Adelson said at a briefing in Singapore today. The company will also add meeting rooms, ballrooms and exhibition spaces to the $6 billion casino resort and largest hotel in Singapore, when the government releases more land, he said. “We need more rooms,” Adelson said. “We are running…