PROMISING CASINO VISITATION FOR RESORTS WORLD AT SENTOSA - OSK RESEARCH

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) saw a
promising start for Singapore's first casino with actual visitation during the
last few days of its maiden operation averaging 20,000 to 25,000 a day.

"Although one may argue that the strong numbers could be part attributed to
the Chinese New Year public holidays and the novelty effect, we were made to
understand that even during non-public holidays, table utilisation was near 100
per cent," said OSK Research in its investment research report Monday.

"As such, we think that based on the present overwhelming response, the
management can easily ramp up gaming table capacity to full capacity of
approximately 530 tables within two to three weeks from the current 270 tables
currently," it added.

However, it said, there were operational hiccups due to the overwhelming
crowd and also some complaints of the inexperience of casino dealers, which
would require approximately three to four months to stabilise, resulting in some
downtime in achieving operational efficiencies.

Meanwhile, ECM Libra Investment Research said the number of tables would
only be ramped up to the targeted 530 over the next three to six months due to
staffing concerns.

"We are wary that the slow roll out of tables will not give RWS much of a
head start before Marina Bay Sands start opening in April 2010," it said.
-- BERNAMA