Singapore is poised to overtake Las Vegas as the world's second-largest gambling destination behind Macau, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The island nation's first two casino resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, have brought in gaming revenue of $5.1 billion in 2010, a figure RBS says will climb by 25 percent to $6.4 billion this year, just over Las Vegas' $6.2 billion, CNBC reports.

A love of gambling in Asia, plus growing economies there, is motoring growth in Singapore's gaming industry.

Singapore’s reputation as a safe and corruption-free global city makes it an attractive spot to develop a gaming industry, analysts say.

Vegas gambling (Getty photo)

While U.S. and European economies have spent the last couple of years mired in recession or at best, sluggish recovery, Asian economies have been hot.

In fact, the International Monetary Fund says many Asian countries are in danger of overheating.

The multilateral lending institution predicts five major developing economies — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam — to grow average 5.4 percent this year and 5.7 percent in 2012, the AFP newswire reports.

Asia's "newly industrialized economies" — Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan — will expand an average 4.9 percent this year and 4.5 percent next, which the fund describes as a "more sustainable" rate than last year's average of 6.1 percent.

"Signs of overheating are starting to materialize in a number of economies in the Asian region," the IMF says.

"Continued high growth has meant that some economies in the Asian region are now operating at or above potential."