A market of casino resorts in Thailand could generate US$15 billion in annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) “once ramped up”, said Jeffrey Kiang (pictured, left), an analyst at brokerage CLSA Ltd.
He was speaking on Tuesday on the first day of the Thai Entertainment Complex Summit in the country’s capital, Bangkok. The possibility of a five-resort market has been mentioned in Thai media reports.
In July, the brokerage had mentioned the possibility of a Thai market generating US$8.5 billion annually.
Ben Lee (pictured, 3rd left), managing partner of IGamiX Management and Consulting Ltd, said on the same panel, that based on his firm’s research, “GGR from the international markets alone” – i.e., non-local players – in the Thailand market “could very easily reach US$10 billion”.
At Tuesday’s event, CLSA’s Mr Kiang noted Thailand could be the “third biggest land-based casino market” relative to 2023 data.
His presentation suggested 20 percent to 25 percent of visitors to Thai integrated resorts (IRs) with casino were likely to be from mainland China and Hong Kong, “similar to Singapore”.
The current draft bill proposes casino licences running for 30 years, with the possibility of renewal for a further 10 years. Each casino resort would require at least THB100 billion (US$2.90 billion currently) in investment, according to the document.
Mr Lee expected China would be the largest contributor of foreign players, with “Malaysia… the second contributor because the Malaysian Chinese are used to gambling”.
The consultant stated: “I think Macau will be a potential loser simply because, at the moment, [Macau] gets about 93.5 percent of [its] visitors from Greater China – mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong,”
CLSA’s Mr Kiang thought Thailand would be “most like” the Singapore resort market, and therefore compete more directly with Singapore.
“We think the GGR per visitation in Singapore – at US$386 – should be the most comparable” with the expectations for Thailand, said Mr Kiang.
Mr Lee observed that Malaysia, Singapore’s immediate neighbour to the north, had “been feeding the two IRs in Singapore very strongly”.
He added: “Maybe not in terms of the top level [players], but certainly in terms of what we call the ‘uncles and aunties’, the growing mass.”
