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Radio
Singapore International, 10 Jul 04
The gambling culture in Singapore
One young Singaporean's study
In this edition of Young Expressions, one young Singaporean’s move
to study the gambling culture in Singapore. And later, what operating
a casino means for Singapore.
Welcome to the program, I’m Melanie Yip.
A sociology graduate from the National University of Singapore was
intrigued by what he observed at a local supermarket. Denny Ho Teck
Hua was standing outside the supermarket and he noticed a long queue
there. There were no signs indicating that this was the location of
a betting outlet. Yet he found people queuing to try their luck, during
lunch time, dinner or even during working hours.
So Denny (DH) decided to study the gambling culture in Singapore for
his honors degree research.
DH: The first comment I got from my thesis supervisor was “are you
serious about doing this subject?? And I was quite shocked because
I couldn’t find any existing research and he cautioned that it may
be difficult to gain access to information, both from the legal and
illegal gambling operations. I found out through the hard way.
Denny also interviewed some illegal gambling operators.
DH: Gaining the respondents was one of the most difficult aspects
of my research as the underground operators were afraid of getting
caught. It was understandable. They would ask me if I was part of
the government, or a police officer, how did I know of their existence,
who told them, who rattled on them? I needed to answer all these questions,
I needed to pacify and assure them that this was for my academic research.
They will also ask “what do I get out of helping you?? Actually, in
real fact, they do not get any real benefits by talking to me, so
it was hard at first convincing them.
During the course of Denny's research, he discovered that youths as
young as 15 were immersed in the gambling culture.
DH: One of my respondents was a 15 year old kid, going on 16. And
he was gambling on both ends, legal and illegal. Basically, what he
did was he asked his older friends to place bets for him, and to claim
the prize money for him. But there is a tendency to switch to illegal
betting. After some time of betting via legal means, he was more involved
in the betting culture. He gained access to the underground avenues,
and started betting with illegal operators.
And the process continued when the same boy made a worrying transition
into the gambling career
DH: Subsequently, he goes into what I term the transition into career
gambling, he starts collecting bets from his friends, and betting
with illegal operators, taking a cut of the money. So he is slowly
becoming a professional runner for the bookies in Singapore. He denies
that he is a runner and insists he is helping his friends, but when
you see his rationale, if he’s collecting bets and taking money out
of it, he is on his way to becoming a runner, if he is not now.
As the case showed, gambling can be addictive, and young people could
find themselves pursuing a gambling career if left unchecked.
So what can be done to prevent this? Denny suggests
DH: The only advice / restriction from the legal operators is responsible
gambling. They tell people to gamble within their means. But when
compared to smoking, one stick is one stick too much. And compare
that to drunk driving, one drink is one drink too many, be safe. What
about gambling? You’re telling people to gauge within your own means,
so does it raise any dangers. When you gamble, statistically, you
lose in the long run. If you spend S$50 on gambling, could the money
be used for better purposes or on your family. By saying that you
are gambling S$50 on legal avenues, S$5 is donated to the underprivileged.
So you are essentially giving S$45 away.
Meanwhile, Singapore is studying the feasibility of building a casino
in the country. And this proposal has sparked off a debate on whether
the economic benefits outweigh the social costs.
Professor Jan McMillen (JM) is the Director of the Center for Gaming
Research at the Australian National University. She sees the necessity
of putting proper regulations in place before opening a casino.
JM: The answer really lies in the policies and the regulations in
place. If we do not have proper policies, of course social problems
would occur. But we’ve demonstrated in various parts of the world
that if the government thinks ahead, and puts proper policies in place,
even before the casino starts to operate, a lot of those social problems
can be prevented or minimized. For instance, in America, casinos tend
to attract a lot of community crime. In Australia, they don’t. In
fact, in Australia, the casinos are probably the safest place in the
major cities because the governments have introduced good policies,
good regulations to prevent street disorder, crime inside the casino,
and outside the casino. The same with problem gambling, if Singapore
is prepared to put efforts into some very carefully planned policies
to prevent problem gambling, they can be minimized. And in fact, the
problems can be a lot less than with the existing illegal gambling
operations that are already there.
In fact, some have argued that having a casino can also reduce the
possibility of people indulging in online or illegal gambling.
Professor McMillen agrees.
JM: If you have a fairly active illegal gambling market, and you regulate
it well, you can prevent and minimize social problems associated with
the illegal market. So I think it is likely to occur in Singapore
as well. Not completely, mind you, there is always going to be illegal
gambling but if you have a well-regulated, well run legal facilities,
most citizens would prefer to gamble there, with the legal operators.
On the issue of who frequents the casino, she cites the experiences
of casinos in other countries.
JM: In the United States ?Nevada and New Jersey ?casinos attract a
lot of international tourists but particularly domestic tourists because
casinos aren’t readily available in the rest of the country, so people
from one side of America will travel to Nevada to gamble every year.
In Australia, we have casinos spread all over the country; it’s the
locals who are the main visitors. They are perhaps two or three casinos
in Australia that do attract tourists but if at the most, it’ll be
10% of revenue coming from tourists. In Europe, they have a different
approach. They restrict entry to casinos only to tourists, and people
from other countries. So the locals don’t go there. Even if locals
are allowed into the casinos, they need to pay an entrance fee that
is a disincentive.
In the final analysis, the burning question is “Will the economic
benefits of building a casino in Singapore outweigh the social costs.
Professor McMillen offers her perspective.
JM: This is a question for Singapore about whether they go ahead and
build a casino so that they don’t lose revenue, or whether they have
a casino that provides the same sorts of attractions as other countries.
There are several countries in Asia that are moving towards having
casinos, and if that occurs, Singapore could be disadvantaged because
Singaporeans would go to casinos in other countries. And all the casinos
in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it’s the locals who patronize
the casinos. A very small percentage of revenue comes from people
from other countries. So it’s more of stopping the money from draining
out of Singapore and to make the Singapore tourism industry competitive
with the industry in other countries. Professor Jan McMillen, Director
of the Center for Gambling Research at the Australian National University.
You’ve been listening to Young Expressions. Join me at the same time,
next week. I’m Melanie Yip for Radio Singapore International. |
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