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Genting leaves UK while Rank bets on Brit future
Britain's casino landscape is altering as Genting Singapore discards its UK operations in order to focus on its Resorts World Sentosa project, while Rank promises to open ten more venues in the country.
Genting's £340m ($530m) sale of its sites to a subsidiary of Malaysian-listed Genting Malaysia Berhad may not change much for ordinary players. But Rank's ambitious plans will.
The company – which in the first half of 2010 more than doubled its operating profit compared to the previous year – plans five new casinos in northern and central England by 2012, followed by a further five, bringing its total estate to 45.
Although it seems to be focusing its expansion programme away from London, it will also bid for the licence to build a new casino in Newham in the eastern part of the capital, near the site of the 2012 Olympics.
Also likely is a continued commitment to Rank's new G Casino brand: it recently closed the Grosvenor in Hove on England's south coast, after opening a G Casino in next-door Brighton. Exit Grosvenor, enter G?
