Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp., MGM Mirage and the other bidders for the two Singapore casino resorts will now compete in areas such as architecture and tourism draws after the government decided to fix the land price, analysts said.

Singapore yesterday said it will price the downtown casino resort site at S$1.2 billion ($707 million) and announce the land cost for a location on the southern island of Sentosa at a later date. The 12 bidders will be judged on criteria including concept and design, development costs, the ability to draw tourists and past track records, the government said.

``The benefit of this process is it refocuses not on the land value but on the development itself, bringing back qualities such as creativity, strategy and management the facility,'' said Sean Monaghan, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Singapore. He estimates casino operators would spend a total of $5 billion on the two sites.

Singapore in April said it would drop a long-standing ban on casinos and allow two to be included in resorts in the city- state to boost tourist arrivals, which it estimates will double in the next decade. The city-state expects the resorts, which may include attractions such as museums, theme parks, convention centers and hotels, to create 35,000 jobs.

Some bidders have already started the competition by lining up partners to boost their bids. Las Vegas Sands, the world's biggest casino-hotel operator by market value, has teamed up with Clear Channel's Entertainment unit to bring Broadway musicals such as ``The Lion King'' and performers such as Madonna and the Rolling Stones to the city-state.

Universal Studios, Daniel Libeskind

Kuala Lumpur-based Genting Bhd. plans to build a Universal Studios theme-park if it wins the bid for the Sentosa site. Harrah's Entertainment Inc., the biggest U.S. gaming company by sales, hired Daniel Libeskind, the master planner of the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in New York City, to design the development for its downtown bid.

Fixing the land price allow bidders ``to devote full energy and resources to developing the concept for the integrated resort,'' Ian Douglas, executive development director in Singapore for Kerzner International Ltd., owner of the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, said in an e-mailed statement.

Singapore, the only country in Asia with the top rating by credit rating companies Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, has said it will allow casinos to draw more tourists and become a catalyst for new developments, and not just boosting tax revenue.

Shaping the Skyline

The casino resort ``is a significant component for our drive to make Singapore a very vibrant city,'' Mah Bow Tan, Singapore's National Development Minister, said in a briefing yesterday. ``A good integrated resort would contribute to the attractiveness of our city and shape the Singapore skyline for many years to come.''

Singapore's gaming tax is set at 15 percent, and for customers who gamble more than S$100,000 a day, the tax rate falls to 5 percent, the lowest worldwide for so-called high- rollers. The government said yesterday it's committed to the tax rates for at least 15 years.

``The intensity and focus of the government showcases the continuing strategic importance of the project to the country and its tourism sector,'' said Jonathan Galaviz, a partner at Globalysis Ltd., a Las Vegas research company that tracks the gaming industry.

To contact the reporter on this story: Linus Chua in Singapore at lchua@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 4, 2005 20:25 EST