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The decision by Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) is designed to promote goodwill and highlight the complex's commitment to the environment, said vice-president of communications Krist Boo.
Shark's fin has recently become a highly contentious dish. Environmental groups have stepped up protests against restaurants and resorts that offer the cartilage soup, saying about one-third of shark species in the world are critically endangered. It is estimated that tens of millions of the animals have their fins cut off annually before being thrown back into the sea where they die.
While RWS will not serve the cartilage soup in its restaurants, it will make it available to high-rollers, the lucrative guests who gamble heavily in casinos.
'We did our sums and we cannot say no to the high-rollers. But we felt at least 90 per cent of what might normally be served will be done away with if we take it off the menu,' Ms Boo said.
Yesterday's decision is virtually unheard of in large entertainment centres and casinos in the region.
Only Hong Kong Disneyland has taken shark's fin off the menu. That was prompted by international campaigns by animal welfare groups.
Yesterday, the executive director of United States-based environmental group WildAid welcomed RWS' decision.
'No arm twisting was necessary here. This was completely their call,' said Mr Peter Knights, who attended a press conference at the resort.
The move will see RWS' Chinese restaurants lose a possible money maker, said Ms Boo. Its straw poll of four Singapore restaurants and one hotel chain found up to 70 per cent of their revenue comes from shark's fin and abalone, she said.
Mr Louis Ng, executive director of Singapore's Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), doubts the dish will be missed.
'There was a restaurant serving up fake shark's-fin soup for years here before it got caught, which goes to show we don't need shark's fin,' he said yesterday.
Both Mr Knights and Mr Ng helped RWS announce another programme yesterday: a wildlife conservation fund into which RWS said it will put $3.2 million over the next five years. The RWS Marine Life Fund will hand out grants to projects designed to help protect sea life. A quarter of the available funds are expected to go to schoolchildren.
