Casinoes in Singapore

Well, as we all know, there are two integrated resorts. When I first heard about building these resorts in Singapore, I was rather excited and curious because it is the first time that Singapore is going to have a universal studio theme park and a casino. I began to thought about the implications of these and today, I am going to focus more on the casino.

Firstly, the plan to build a casino in Singapore is mainly to boost the economy by attracting more tourists to Singapore and in the process, provide more jobs for the jobless people in Singapore. There are some concerns over the social problems that the casino would bring about, which I do not deny, but looking at the bigger picture, this is actually a good chance to earn more revenue and it is also one of the few chances where a country's economy can be significantly improved.

I would like to talk more about the good points the casino can bring. Firstly, the casino is built mainly to boost the economy by attracting more tourists to Singapore, which I have mentioned in the previous paragraph and in the meantime, create more job opportunities for the unemployed in Singapore. Many countries like Malaysia and Macau have built casinoes to increase revenue and this is a fast and effective way to do so. The casino will no doubt have a significant impact as shown in the number of people going to the casinoes in the opening days. The queue for foreigners is much longer than that of the locals and I think the government has achieved the aim of earning money from the foreigners. Think about it. There is no doubt there most of the foreigners stay for more than a day and from the nights they stay in the hotel, the government is actually earning money from the taxes too. The casino serves as an attraction for foreigners and regardless whether they gamble or not, the government will most likely be able to earn money and generate more revenue.

However, there are some people who are against the decision of building the casinoes. What is their major fear? They fear that their family members would be addicted to gambling and risk getting themselves in huge debt, broken families etc. There is no doubt that there might be a possibility of this happening. However, I feel that the government has put measures in place to discourage Singaporeans from entering the casino to gamble. Firstly, there is the exorbitant entrance fee of $100 per entry. Also, family members now have the choice to call the NCPG, or the National Centre for Problem Gambling, to put a bar on their family members, thus preventing them for entering the casinos. There are also television advertisements reminding us the disastrous consequences of gambling. I feel that these measures are sufficient enough to discourage most people from entering the casino regularly, unless they are already addicted.

Overall, I believe that building the casino could turn out to be a good decision. I think that it is also a last resort to boost the economy as Lee Kuan Yew has always firmly rejected ideas to build casinoes in Singapore, for fear of the worst. With the advantages of the casino, coupled with measures put in place to discourage Singaporeans from gambling, I believe that the decision of building the casino is a good one, although it remains to be seen.