Resort World Sentosa -- The Casino

Is Resort World Sentosa your hope to get your millions?

In its first full week of operation, the casino itself had more than 149,000 people, despite having opened only half of its 530 gambling tables and 1300 slot machines on Day one. The response from the people has been overwhelming, which can be seen when RWS’s four hotels, with a total of 1350 rooms, were fully booked until the end of Chinese New Year. People are flocking down to the casinos to place their bets and business in RWS has almost double since the opening of the casino.

Many people patronize the casino, often hoping that they would strike it big. Some condemn the building of a casino in Singapore while others support the idea of a casino in Singapore. Why is this so? There are many ways to view the construction of a casino in Singapore. Everything has pros and cons, and it is the same for this issue. The advantages of a casino in Singapore are plentiful, but the disadvantages of it can be disastrous.

The casino was built for a few reasons, mainly to boost Singapore’s economical growth. Obviously, building a casino is a splendid way of generating profits and attracting tourists. First and foremost, building a casino in Singapore means more job opportunities for those who are jobless. This means that some 20,000 jobless people can now apply for jobs and support their families. This is extremely crucial and important, especially when everyone is trying to recover from the economical downturn in 2009.

Secondly, a casino will attract more tourists to Singapore, increasing the tourism rate. When more tourists come to visit Singapore, the profits Singapore gain also increases. Moreover, Singapore is a country which depends on profits earned by tourism to survive; hence attracting more people to Singapore is a crucial step which Singapore has to take. Statistics show that this casino had been a total success, where it had been full-house at restaurants and some had even run out of food. Business in many stores had more than doubled since the casino opened.

The construction of the casino indeed has many advantages. However, we must also look at the other side of the issue, which is the social impact of the casino.
A casino can help generate profit, but at the expense of many social problems which may lead to drastic consequences. Those who condemn the construction of the casino often argue that people may become addicted to gambling, leading to a series of drastic consequences. For example, avid gamblers will not stop gambling but continue to do so, thinking that the government had supported them by building the casino. Many people may also be influenced to take on the habit of gambling, resulting in being addicted to it. Moreover, addicts who are trying to curb the habit will find it hard to reform and stop their habit due to easy access to a casino. This may cause a chain reaction, causing many problems difficulties.

With more people addicted to gambling, the number of people who gets into debt becomes higher. Who do these people turn to then? More often than not, these desperate people would turn to the short-term solution – borrowing from loan sharks. Hence, the crime rate in Singapore will increase. One of the important points that attract tourists to Singapore is the low crime rate that Singapore is proud to boast about. Thus, if the crime rate in Singapore increases, lesser tourists will visit Singapore, which is contrary to our intended outcome.

Furthermore, the younger generation may be affected by this too.
Imagine what would happen if all of us gets addicted to gambling. What would happen to our country? What would happen to our people, our children?

“It was just a matter of fun, to hang out with my friends” and “The more I lost, the more I wanted to reclaim them”, says Jonny W., who lost almost everything to a gambling addiction — his wife, his money, and the life he once knew.

This clearly shows how addictive gambling can become, hence, if the younger generation were to get addicted, the future of Singapore will be in the hands of corrupted people.

Well, it would be unfair to say that Singapore has not done anything to try and prevent these social problems. Until now, Singapore has implemented a few policies; the casino exclusion orders, where worried family members can keep their family members away from the casinos, or when people want to keep themselves away from temptation. This can help control people from gambling excessively. However, it is also important to note that family exclusion orders has spiked recently, which means that more and more people are becoming addicted to gambling.

Furthermore, Singaporeans and PRs are now subjected to a number of restrictions, including having to pay a one-day entry levy of $100 or an annual pass of $2000. This will make potential gamblers think twice before entering the casino. However, since foreigners are not subjected to this restriction, many of them, especially low-income foreign workers, swarm up to the casino hoping to earn more money. This is because their income is low and they think that by going to the casino, there may be a chance that they may strike it big.

After weighing out the pros and cons of this issue, I personally feel that the construction of the casino is necessarily evil. It is important to attract tourists to Singapore and having a casino is the fastest way to attract them. Although some may argue that the social problems have to take precedence over the economic growth of Singapore, I believe that if the government knows how to deal with the problem and implements more policies to help curb the social problems, Singapore will continue to strive.