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 informed 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 points of interest 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 known as a game-changing yr for us,” she mentioned. “Over the following few years… to 2030, we will likely be persevering with to launch new points of interest.”
In saying the two-year license renewal, the Playing Regulatory Authority thought of Resorts World Sentosa’s capability to “develop, keep and promote” itself as a compelling vacationer vacation spot.
When requested which of those areas the resort is targeted on, Lee mentioned: “The massive push for us is absolutely remodeling Resorts World Sentosa right into a premium life-style vacation spot.”
Tapping into ‘experiences’
Buying, as soon as a prime precedence for vacationers in Asia, shouldn’t be a precedence within the resort’s transformation, mentioned Lee.
“Our focus is absolutely into experiences,” Lee mentioned.
The choice to switch 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 could be very resonant 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 all over the place else. So to us, there is a frequent language,” she mentioned.
Minions communicate their very own language, known as Minionese, which contains components of English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese language and Tagalog, amongst others, in line with the “Despicable Me” fandom web site.
Resorts World Sentosa can be planning to open new motels, together with The Laurus, a luxurious resort designed like a “collector’s dwelling” in Singapore, that’s set to open later in 2025, Lee mentioned.
A rendering of Resorts Worlds Sentosa’s deliberate waterfront life-style complicated set to open in 2030.
Resorts World Sentosa
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 700 rooms, climbing trails and a 289-foot mild sculpture, she mentioned.
“The waterfront life-style complicated is absolutely going to boost the enchantment of the Larger Southern Waterfront,” she mentioned. The complicated is a “brownfield undertaking,” which will likely be seen from mainland Singapore.
Lee declined to touch upon whether or not the deliberate life-style complicated could have gaming services.
—CNBC’s Kaela Ling contributed to this report.