The five submitted their documents for probity checks in time for a Friday deadline, the Straits Times newspaper said.

It named the groups, which include some of the world's biggest casino operators, as Harrah's Entertainment-Keppel Land, Las Vegas Sands, MGM Grand-CapitaLand, Genting International, and Melco International and Publishing and Broadcasting.

Genting, a Malaysian casino operator, has teamed with Universal Studios and its unit Star Cruises for the bid.

Absent from the list of reported bidders was another US gaming giant, Wynn Resorts. Wynn was one of several companies to have indicated interest in the city's first casino project.

But US casino magnate Steve Wynn complained in an interview with Singapore's the Business Times in May that there was too much direction and control by officials involved in the bidding process.

While praising Singapore's economic policies, good governance and world class infrastructure, Wynn did not mince words in saying that attempts at micro-management could affect creativity, the newspaper reported.

Australia's Tabcorp dealt itself out of the bidding on Friday, saying the stakes in the project had become too rich.

The Australian gaming giant said it was no longer in the running for the Marina Bay Integrated Resort in downtown Singapore because "too many things would have to go right for the project to achieve our targeted returns."

Their withdrawal came one day after property group GuocoLand Limited, controlled by Malaysian tycoon Quek Leng Chan, said it had decided not to bid for a Singapore casino licence.

Gaming operators must submit their proposals for the casino by March 29, the Straits Times reported last month, quoting a gaming analyst who paid a S$10,000 (US$5882) fee for the government's Request for Proposals documents.

The analyst, Sean Monaghan, told the newspaper the winning operator would have to pay an annual casino fee of $12.5 million to the state.

Singapore in April lifted a four-decade ban on casinos despite strong domestic opposition, and gave the go-ahead for two casinos. Marina Bay is the first opened to bidding.

Authorities said the two proposed casinos, with an expected combined cost of $5 billion, will boost the country's tourism industry and the economy in general while spicing up the city's staid image.

The casinos are expected to open in 2009.

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