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Reuters,
26 Jun 04
Will Singapore bet on a casino? Stakes are
high
SINGAPORE: State-run lotteries, casino cruise ships, illegal bookmakers,
horse racing and illicit poker dens... Singapore is no stranger to
gambling.
But a proposal to build the first fully fledged casino in Southeast
Asia’s wealthiest state is dividing public opinion and provoking a
groundswell of polite criticism in a nation where decisions are usually
sewn up quietly behind closed doors.
Casinos would accelerate efforts to remould Singapore’s $93 billion
economy into a services hub as China’s rapid economic growth erodes
the city’s traditional manufacturing base and fast-growing cities
such as Bangkok vie for tourist dollars.
They would open up a new avenue for tapping the growing affluence
of Asian travellers, while plugging revenues lost to illegal gambling
dens and countries where casinos are legal such as Cambodia, the Philippines
and potentially Thailand.
But critics say Singapore is flirting with a social disaster. Evidence
of the sensitivity of the subject: homegrown moviemaker Jack Neo’s
latest work “The Best Bet”, which tells the story of three Singaporeans
obsessed with the national lottery.
“What I want people to think about is, if you get into big trouble,
if you gamble so much, it affects your family, it affects your life
entirely,” Neo told Reuters.
Thailand, like Singapore, is also considering legalising casinos,
while the Philippines announced this week it was accelerating a $15
billion casino and entertainment project.
Neo, a former gambling addict who wrote and directed the film, once
spent S$1,200 ($700) a month for several years on the lottery. Critical
but resigned, he reckons a casino is natural for a developed nation
already betting heavily in lotteries, on cruise ships and via illegal
bookmakers. He expects it will go ahead.
Government delegations have flown to Las Vegas and the Chinese gambling
enclave of Macau to study casino models, and a decision is expected
around the end of the year.
Financially compelling: The financial case is compelling, analysts
say. GK Goh Research estimates betting revenue accounted for nearly
10 percent of Singapore’s overall government taxation in 2003, a figure
that would swell if a casino opened. Singaporeans already spend about
$180 million a year in neighbouring Malaysia’s casinos, which bar
Muslims. About $140 million of Singaporean money is spent in Indonesia’s
Batam island casinos and about $400 million is spent on casino cruises.
The Innovation Group, a U.S. consultancy that compiled the data, said
“floating casinos” and illegal gambling in Asia were worth about $4.2
billion alone. Some estimates put the value of Asia’s legal gambling
industry at about $14 billion.
“From my perspective I don’t see any reason why the government would
not want to take that step to open and allow a casino,” said Steven
Lim, the executive director of RGB, a Malaysia-based gaming supplier.
The Business Times estimates a casino in Singapore could earn $235-$335
million a year for the operators and create up to 1,000 jobs. Las
Vegas Sands Inc, which opened a lavish Vegas-style new casino in Macau
in May, has said it is ready to pump in as much as US$2 billion to
operate a Singapore casino.
Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho’s gambling empire showed interest
this week, along with Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, the number two U.S.
casino company, and Vienna-based Casinos Austria International Ltd.
The draw is simple: Singapore boasts Southeast Asia’s highest per-capita
income, Asia’s sixth-busiest air hub, the world’s third-largest number
of city business conventions in 2004 and increasing numbers of affluent
Chinese tourists.
Social ills: But public debate simmers over the social consequences
and a proposal to restrict local access in the hope of heading off
widespread gambling addiction.
Trade Minister George Yeo triggered an angry public response in March
when he said: “If you are not of a certain economic class, you should
not even think of going there.”
Islamic scholars have condemned the idea, and the Straits Times newspaper
has bristled with public criticism. “There are certain businesses
we should never get involved in and gambling is definitely one of
them,” one resident, Ling Wai Ping said.
Even a senior official at Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), which
enjoyed a 40-year monopoly on casinos in Macau until this year, speaks
of the dangers. “In my view, if a place that is already a financial
centre, (where) you have sophisticated trading, it’s not advisable
to have a casino there,” SJM director Ambrose So said this week. “The
casino operation will have a cannibalising effect on other industries
if the locals are addicted to gambling.”
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in 1991 that a casino would never
exist in Singapore so long as he was leader. He is due to be replaced
this year by Lee Hsien Loong, son of Singapore’s founding prime minister
Lee Kuan Yew.
“The upside of this is there is money being collected and being given
to education, sports and culture,” said member of parliament Chandra
Mohan. “If it’s for a good cause, the government can justify it morally
and ethically, to an extent.”
Besides, industry executives say, Singaporeans will gamble whether
a casino goes ahead or not. “If gambling is not legalised, it merely
goes underground and it continues to exist. It’s part of Chinese culture
to gamble even at weddings and funerals,” said Theodore Loh, managing
director of orientgaming, which runs online gaming. |
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