…and
it seems Singapore may be losing.
I think that when I heard that Singapore was going to allow casino gambling I was mildly surprised, as the little red dot, as some Singaporeans affectionately refer to their country, is known for being somewhat Puritanical on the surface. Prostitution in private quarters is legal, with government-mandated monthly medical checks and, of course, taxation. While homosexual acts are illegal under the notorious Section 377A, there has been only one arrest under this section in a very long time (and that only recently). There are gay saunas, which are tolerated by the government. There is a government lottery as well, to satisfy the gambling instincts that many Asian men and women have.
When I then discovered that Singaporeans were to be charged Sg$100 (US$74 or GBP47) daily to enter the casino to gamble, I figured that would deter all but the most intrepid gambler. However, it turns out that the casinos laid on free transport from the government-developed housing estates direct to the gambling dens, and that many Singaporeans were using them, paying the Sg$100, and going at the slot machines. The lure of winnings seems to have been able to overcome the deterrence of the entry fee.
So, of course, the gahmen (I think that the Singlish word for "government" is so much easier to type and so very evocative that I'm going to use it for the rest of this piece) has told the casinos to put the free buses back in the garages. I don't believe that losing the free buses is going to deter anyone from going from Ang Mo Kio to the casinos if a Sg$100 charge doesn't.
The article also mentions that many people have been caught cheating in the casinos and stiff sentences have been handed out to them by the Singapore courts. Stiff sentences? In Singapore? In other news, the Pope has declared that he is truly Catholic and scientists have announced that they have discovered scat in the woods that is definitely that of bears.
The upside of all this is that the casinos have been successful in their main mission: that of relieving millions of new tourists to Singapore of their money and funnelling huge amounts of cash to the Singapore gahmen. In gambling-mad Asia, legalised gambling is almost bound to be a success. Macau up until recently through gambling drew many millions of tourists to a place that was pretty devoid of much else to do. They now have competition from a destination that is at the same time bigger (Singapore is, I think, bigger than Macau), more easily reached by air, and more interesting generally. I've been in both places and Macau (at least in 1997) was pretty uninteresting and the casinos quite tired. Singapore is well-connected, close by land and air to Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, and has good shopping, so that the missus can get her designer fashions while her husband spends his time at the blackjack table.
In general, Singapore has been seen as a place which is relatively clean, both in gahmen and on the streets, pretty moralistic, pretty safe, and somewhat dull. Kind of like Las Vegas up until the end of the Second World War.
My prediction? The casinos will lobby the Singapore gahmen to either drop the Sg$100 charge altogether, or make it less onerous. The casinos can't leave: they've invested too much money in Singapore and they've made too much money as well. But keeping the aunties and uncles at the slot machines will be the next frontier for the casino owners.
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