Today our PM decided that Singapore would have not 1, but 2 casinos. The culmination of a year's worth of debate ended in a result that surprised hardly anyone. Well, most people weren't expecting 2 for the price of 1 but what the hay, since we going for it might as well go the whole hog.
The casinos are of course part of a larger picture we like to call the IR or Integrated Resort, the IR located on Sentosa will be family focused whereas the other one on Marina Bay will focus on the super high roller types. So basically, we're gonna get a 2 one-stop entertainment centres which just happen to have casinos in them.
The benefits of having these 2 IRs include S$5,000,000,000 in investments, 35,000 new jobs and a S$1,500,000,000 yearly contribution to the country's bottom line. Hotel complexes with rooms in the thousands, entertainment facilities up the wazoo, restaurants, eateries, the works. As you can see, it's not some small fart
Now, you might imagine there's been a lot of negative energy directed towards this whole IR thingy since we are afterall an Asian country with a strong asian value system. To tell you the truth Daddy is against the whole idea too, you know, the whole gambling is a sin, no such thing as easy money, gambling destroys homes argument. Besides, some Singaporeans have a knack of hurting themselves even if you were to put them in a padded room.
And then there was the fact that we were Johnny come lately to the whole
Add to that we don't exactly have a shining record of originality when it comes to tourist attractions, the Singapore Flyer (*cough London Eye cough*) and F1 Powerboat racing (like who the hell follows this sport?) being some of the more recent items on the Things-to-do list.
But, over the past few days as today approached, I found reason to question if my stand against the casino was more emotion than logic. The well-orchestrated release of the survey on how much the average Singaporean spends on gambling, smoking and alcohol threw up some pretty interesting numbers. Gambling $83 smoking $109 alcohol $103. Eh, why no one make any noise about smoking and alcohol? Smoking has a proven statistical chance of killing you, it also kills the innocent twats who happened to be standing next to you when you exhaled. Alcohol can kill too, and in a variety of ways, liver failure (you die, painfully, it's not a question of if but when) and drink driving to name a few. And then there's the spousal and child abuse cos you're too blasted to notice you're beating the shit out of your wife and kids. This last one is more insidious and widespread than you might think because of the social stigma in airing your dirty laundry in public.
Ok, if 2% of Singaporeans are at risk of becoming gambling addicts, what's the numbers on alcoholics and chronic smokers? Why no one complain eh? Where's the noise? Where's the online petition? Got FACT (Families Against The Casino Threat), why not FAST (Smoker Threat)and FAAT (Alcohol Threat)? How much we spending on health care to take care of smokers and alcoholics when we could spend that on education and geratric patient care? How many people die of alcoholism and smoking compared to gambling?
There's going to be fallout from this decision, 2% the experts say, 2% who are at risk of being chronic gamblers, 2% who will sell their mothers and daughters so they can get just that little more cash for that one more never ending round. We'll come back to visit this as the situation develops, for now, I hope the decision that was made on your behalf today doesn't become a millstone around your neck tomorrow.
Love,
Daddy
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