Resorts World Sentosa will “be prepared” when Singapore’s Playing Regulatory Authority considers its on line casino license renewal in 2026, the corporate’s CEO Lee Shi Ruh instructed CNBC late final month.
In November 2024, Singapore’s playing company introduced it was renewing the built-in resort’s on line casino license for 2 years, as an alternative of three, citing “unsatisfactory” tourism efficiency from 2021 to 2023.
The announcement got here after Resorts World Sentosa had pledged to speculate $6.8 billion Singapore {dollars} ($5.3 billion) to resume and develop the built-in resort.
The truncated license renewal has not modified Resorts World Sentosa’s growth or funding plans, Lee mentioned.
The corporate opened two new sights in 2025, Minion Land on the Common Studios Singapore theme park, and the Singapore Oceanarium, which changed the built-in resort’s older S.E.A. Aquarium.
“This yr is mostly a game-changing yr for us,” she mentioned. “Over the following few years… to 2030, we will probably be persevering with to launch new sights.”
In asserting the two-year license renewal, the Playing Regulatory Authority thought of Resorts World Sentosa’s skill to “develop, preserve and promote” itself as a compelling vacationer vacation spot.
When requested which of those areas the resort is targeted on, Lee mentioned: “The large push for us is basically reworking Resorts World Sentosa right into a premium life-style vacation spot.”
Tapping into ‘experiences’
Buying, as soon as a high precedence for vacationers in Asia, isn’t a precedence within the resort’s transformation, mentioned Lee.
“Our focus is basically into experiences,” Lee mentioned.
The choice to interchange a “Madagascar” movie-themed space of Common Studios Singapore with Minion Land was, partly, associated to the common enchantment of the characters within the “Despicable Me” franchise, she added.
“Minions stood out as a result of … this yellow character may be very resonate to all ages of tourists, and all all over the world due to the language that they use. It resonates from Asia to Europe to America and in all places else. So to us, there is a widespread language we are able to use,” she mentioned.
Minions communicate their very own language, known as Minionese, which contains parts of English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese language and Tagalog, amongst others, in keeping with the “Despicable Me” fandom web site.
Resorts World Sentosa can also be planning to open new lodges, together with The Laurus, a luxurious resort designed like a “collector’s house” in Singapore, that’s set to open later in 2025, Lee mentioned.
In coming years, the built-in resort is planning to launch Tremendous Nintendo World inside Common Studios Singapore, in addition to an elevated waterfront life-style complicated with a 700-room resort, climbing trails and a 289-foot gentle sculpture, she mentioned.
“The waterfront life-style complicated is basically going to boost the enchantment of the Larger Southern Waterfront,” she mentioned. The complicated is a “brownfield venture,” which will probably be seen from mainland Singapore.
Lee declined to touch upon whether or not the deliberate life-style complicated could have gaming amenities.
—CNBC’s Kaela Ling contributed to this report.
