The Casino Debate

Aletheia Chan states that casinos will be Singapore’s own undoing, which will lead to its own demise. Her stand is that the casinos will erode the strong, family unit that brought Singapore success economically. According to her, it was this strong family ties that held families together both economically and emotionally. By having a casino, she argues that it would only destroy the morals of Singaporeans by trapping them in the deep abyss of gambling addiction. She thinks that the governments’ policies on the casinos would not achieve their desired effect. The policies would only affect a small minority of the population. These policies actually do not protect the higher and middle classes.

However, I would like to question Aletheia Chan’s view. I think it is a tad too exaggerated and the consequences of the casinos may not, in my opinion, have such a significant effect on our society. I agree with her that the casinos would bring about an erosion of values and morals and Singaporeans’ will to work. However, the degree at which this will happen may not of such significance and severity. In my opinion, I think that not a sizeable portion of Singaporeans would actually gamble their lives away at the casinos.

All along, Singaporeans have been lauded for their work attitude and their will to work. It is these two qualities that probably made Singapore such a bustling financial and trade hub. It is also these two qualities that made most Singaporeans’ lives comfortable and financially stable. If Singaporeans have a change in attitude, there may be significant and severe implications to Singapore and Singaporeans. Aletheia argues that these two qualities would be hard-hit by the opening of two casinos. She then links it to the demise of Singaporeans’ standard of living, which would drop due to increased numbers of gambling addicts.

I believe that many Singaporeans have control over their temptation to gamble. Even though we see hordes of Singaporeans betting on 4D and Toto, I think that most of these gamblers have their practice in control and would not sacrifice their standard of living for it. However, by opening a new casino, the government is giving itself an extra duty – to give more help to more gambling addicts. Aletheia stated that gambling addicts’ next-of-kin would be hardest-hit, not the gambler himself. I agree totally. However, with government intervention and help, I think that this situation would not spiral out of control that easily.

By saying that Singapore is starting its own demise by introducing casinos is an overly-exaggerated statement. Surprisingly, the casinos will actually form a small portion of Singaporeans’ spending on gambling. Singaporeans already spend millions of dollars on gambling presently. The two new casinos will only add a small portion to the gambling pie in Singapore. Judging from this, the addition of two new casinos would certainly not bring about the demise of Singapore. If gambling is really such a severe problem in Singapore, Singapore would have gone into self destruction years ago.