Now where did all that money go to?
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TAAA DAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!
I used to hold Las Vegas Sands shares. It is traded on the US stock exchange under the symbol LVS. I bought it at about USD$9 and sold it off for USD$42. It netted me a very handsome profit. Why did the stock run up so significantly? Basically Las Vegas Sands runs a couple of casinos, namely one in Las Vegas itself, Macau and most prominently, Singapore.
The gaming market is huge in Asia. LVS eanrs about 95% of it's income from the Asian market and Singapore is poised to profit from this, apparently...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/27/sands-earns-idUSL3E7IQ50L20110727
Or will we actually...
If setting up a casino was as simple as we made it out to be. Personally I do not think we were and we currently are still not ready for two casinos. The social problems will far outweigh the economic benefits that come attached to setting up the two integrated resorts. Now what actually happened?
1) The building of the casinos actually caused an unreal spike in building activity. This caused a spike in construction costs across the board. Manpower was being directed to the building of not one but two very major integrated resorts. Let us be clear on this. This was something Singapore had never embarked on before. I do not think many Singaporeans understand the magnitude of what happened.
2) The building of the casinos caused an acute shortage of raw materials such as steel and sand. Thus pushing up prices of such raw materials. Since building residential properties also required similar raw materials, this escalated the costs of developing buildings and what developers did was to pass on the costs to the end buyers since they could command prices in a country whereby there was an acute housing shortage due to the lenient immigration policy.
3) The building of the casinos caused a huge wave of extreme optimism in the region. Singapore was seen as the darling of Asia. Not just South-East Asia but the whole of Asia. It was the "in" place to be. Property prices were expected to escalate after the completion of the casinos and thus sellers demanded more, developers increased their prices, buyers rushed in. Just to jump on the bandwagon before prices escalated even further.
The news read that Singapore achieved record economic growth. The reality is that the negative aspects of the two casinos will not be fully felt by our community till a much later date. We are already suffering from the highly inflated economy and historically high property prices. I would like to reiterate what Senior Minister of State (Information, Communications and the Arts and Environment and Water Resources) Grace Fu had commented.
Grace Fu voices concern over effects of casinos
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1143734/1/.html
I have a couple of people whom I know who have a gambling problem. Increasing the entry fee will not be much of a deterrence to them. The $100 will only stop those who are interested to go in and take a look "for fun".
Mercenary as it may seem, we cannot do much to right the wrongs of such a drastic policy to welcome two casinos into our country. Money was made from the casinos. The gambling addicts got poorer, the poor are still poor, the middle income people are not any richer in terms of real income.
Only the super rich have made significant increases in their wealth.
Oh and did I leave someone out?
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1103967/1/.html
Sorry PM Lee, I support you wholeheartedly but I just do not agree with going the low road of setting up two casinos in our beloved Singapore.
Yours Sincerely,
Daryl Lum
(+65) 9009 8731
visit my website @ www.DarylLum.com
read my blog @ www.DarylLum.blogspot.com
