Singapore, one of the world's top gambling destinations, is taking actions to tighten regulations on its two casino resorts.
Tightened rules could impact Las Vegas Sands (LVS), which operates the Marina Bay Sands.
A statement on the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs website said the country plans to amend the Casino Control Act to enable regulatory agencies to levy fines of up to 10% of gross gaming revenue on casinos for infraction rules. The top fine today is $788,500.
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The proposal comes a month after Singapore added 15,000 more Singapore residents to its list of people banned from the city-state's two gaming resorts, bringing the total to 28,000 who are bankrupt or depend on government assistance. Restricting the number of visits by Singapore residents is designed to keep locals from becoming addicted to gambling.
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The government said it will accept citizen comments on the proposed rules for a month beginning on July 6 before finalizing them.
The move comes amid increasing competition among the world's gambling hot spots for gaming dollars, including Las Vegas and China's special gambling district Macau, the world's largest gambling destination.
The Philippines joined the fray on Thursday, saying it had agreed to let Hong Kong based Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL) build a $1 billion casino in Manila, the country's first casino resort.
Sands shares fell 2.9% to 42.33 in afternoon trading Friday. Sands is the biggest casino resort company by revenue in IBD's Leisure Gaming/Equipment group, ranked No. 94 of the 197 industry groups tracked by IBD.
Sands has continued to post strong revenue and earnings per share growth. Its new $4 billion Macau casino opened in April.
Last quarter, Sands EPS rose 89% vs. the same quarter a year earlier, to 70 cents. Sales climbed 31% to $2.76 billion. Still, shares are off 32% from an April 12 high of 62.08 on rising competition in the U.S. and abroad, and continued global economic weakness.
Hong Kong's Melco Crown slid 1.5% to 10.89 in afternoon trade.
Elsewhere in the casinos group, MGM Resorts (MGM) was down 2.6% at 10.70, and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) slipped about 1.5% to 100.31.
Highly rated Shuffle Master (SHFL), which makes game machines and card shufflers for casinos, edged down less than 1% to 14.41.
Singapore's other casino is Genting Singapore's Resorts World Sentoas, which includes Southeast Asia's only Universal Studios amusement park. Genting and Sands spent a combined $10 billion to build the casino resorts in Singapore that opened two years ago.
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