Sunday, April 17, 2005

casiNO - Economic prostitution

I might be in Phuket, but I can't help blogging about the casino issue.

It's plain rubbish, not so much the fact that it was pretty clear from day one that we ARE going to have a casino here whether we like it or not.

What irks me is the way the government is going about this decision.

Do they even care what we think?

This is the impression I get: we have already made up our minds, but we want to make ourselves look good so we get some public feedback...

It's not 100% certain that the casino will produce us economic benefits, though social ills are surely inevitable.

I read a morgan stanley research report that argued against the economic benefits of a casino.
It mentioned that a casino might not be unable to attract the foreign dollar... citing studies of those in Australia and even Genting that show this to be true.

What I fear, and that might happen is that the casino ends up pocketing our citizens' money instead of the tourists, and damages our society. Remember Singapore is such a small place. If one small family is affected, chances are many others will also be involved.

Another reason - a casino in Singapore is unlikely to attract the high rollers, who will still head for Macau, Australia and Las Vegas simply because these places are less restrictive - they can gamble, spend their money more freely, engage in other activities legal or illegal (e.g. women, drugs).

And it's naive to think that the economic benefits will surely outweigh social ills. Remember that recent family murder cum suicide? There were hints of excessive gambling that led to the tragedy... how do you measure the value of those four lives? Surely worth more than a billion dollars a year?

They are merely giving us lip service with so-called feedback forums, survey results etc.
What worries me the most is that this might just trigger off a host of morally wrong but economically right decisions.

It's economic prostitution, and it shows the new cabinet to be short on ideas to sustain our economic growth. There must be at least five better/easier ways to earn that money than having a high-class gambling den.

It frightens me to think what could be next...

posted by Al @ 12:56 am