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Not ready for a bet, just
yet
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE - The Singaporean government's
plans to develop an integrated entertainment
resort with a casino as its centerpiece, to
attract more tourists to this tiny island nation,
have triggered a rare public debate on a
state-sponsored initiative.
In a country
known for its politically apathetic population,
which seldom speaks out against government
policies, the proposal to build the country's
first legal casino has attracted a storm of
protests. Even the government acknowledges that
there is opposition to the plan and seems to
encourage debate on this hot social issue.
Senior Minister for Trade and Industry
Vivian Balakrishnan, who has received some 1,200
letters from people protesting the project since
it was officially mooted six months ago, said
"Singapore is moving its discussion of national
issues up one notch".
An online petition
against the casino started in mid-December - by a
group of Singaporeans calling themselves Families
Against The Casino Threat in Singapore or FACTS -
has so far attracted more than 19,000 signatures
in a city-state comprising 4 million people.
Speaking on Radio Singapore International
recently, Balakrishnan argued that what the
government is proposing is a "large-scale,
iconic-integrated entertainment resort, which
would be a tourist icon that would put us on the
tourist road map" where gambling is a "very small
component of a much larger whole".
In
calling for applications a month ago, from local
and foreign developers, to build the coastal
resort, the government set down various conditions
that would restrict the local population from
gambling at the casino.
Among them is a
daily fee of S$100 (US$61) or an annual fee of
S$2,000 (US$1,225) for Singapore residents to
enter the casino. There is also a ban on
advertising the casino in local media and the
extension of credit to Singaporeans who want to
gamble.
On the other hand, however, the
government is offering a "low" tax rate of 15% on
casino revenue, to attract foreign investors to
the project. The government has already set aside
a S$2 billion fund to develop the tourism industry
here to double the number of visitors to the
island state over the next 10 years. The
casino-cum-resort development is seen as a crucial
part of this strategy to compete against regional
competitors.
Singapore Management
University's associate professor Winston Koh
predicts that a casino should add S$500 million to
the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). But
many community and religious leaders argue that
this would be offset by the social cost to the
community.
The Hindu Endowment Board's
chairman, V R Nathan, said that his group does not
support any form of gambling: "[Despite] whatever
controls there are in place, we should tell
citizens clearly not to get involved in gambling,"
he said.
Singapore's National Council of
Churches has issued a statement on the casino
issue, arguing that a "country which may pride
itself on having the best entertainment resort
with gambling facilities is unlikely to be a
wholesome family-friendly society, which our
government seeks to advance". They have also
pointed out that Singapore is not such a poor
country that it needs revenue from casinos to
increase its GDP.
Nonetheless, according
to a community survey by the Institute of Policy
Studies, Singaporeans are more concerned about the
proposed casino eroding their value system rather
than its social cost. "When you focus on the
social impact, the results [of the poll] seem to
suggest that people think this can be managed. But
once you start moving into the question of values,
the larger group feels it is not easily handled,"
said the institute's research fellow Gillian Koh.
According to a survey done by US
consultants, The Innovation Group, Singaporeans
spend nearly US$1 billion a year in overseas
casinos. Other local surveys have indicated that
Singaporeans are heavy gamblers, served by
state-controlled lotteries, sports betting and
horse racing, which raised an estimated S$1.5
billion (US$918 million) in gambling taxes for the
Singapore government in 2002-03.
The
Singaporean government, however, is targeting the
regional tourism market, where industry sources
predict Asians will spend US$23 billion a year on
gambling by 2010.
Macau has opened two new
casinos to tap into this market, and last month
Malaysia's Genting Resort Casino operators bought
into a Britain-based gambling company. South
Korea, Laos and the Philippines operate legal
casinos, while the neighboring Indonesian island
of Batam has a number of illegal casinos, with
Singapore-owned cruise ships ferrying tourists to
the resorts.
Rich Mirman, senior vice
president of Harrah Entertainment Inc, one of the
largest US casino operators, said in a recent
media interview that Singapore's legalizing of
casinos could be a catalyst for other Asian
countries to relax their restrictions on gambling.
"The market we are most interested at this point
is Singapore," he said. "It's a market we want to
be in and we want to set up a beachhead, a
jumping-in point for Asia."
Mirman
believes that Singapore's decision could help in
the way casinos are perceived in other Asian
countries. But others fear that a casino will
attract criminals and money launderers to a
country that is comparatively crime-free by
regional standards. "If a gambler brings in one
million dollars, will the casino ask him how he
got it?" asked retired stockbroker N Narayan. "More
likely, it will assign him a special room, ply him
with free liquor and women, and hope to get some
of that money."
(Inter Press Service) |
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