The Casino has Opened !!!!!

The Casino at Sentosa has just recently opened its doors. Today, I will talk about my opinions on the casino.

Firstly, why did the Singapore government decide to open a (in fact 2) casinos in Singapore? The real reason would be to boost the economy. To many of you, including myself, the first question would be why do something to boost the economy that could be potenially dangerous for Singaporeans. The first reaction would be that gambling would cause people to lose their cash because of gambling addiction. However, the Singapore government has already thought about all these possible consequences.

The Singapore government has decided to charge a $100 levy for locals entering the casino. Many people might argue that this is unfair. Why are citizens and PRs given a disadvantage over tourists? The answer would be because the casino was meant to cater to tourists and high-flyers across the globe, literally to "rob" them of their money. The $100 levy is to discourage Singaporeans from coming to the casino too often and to prevent casino addiction by Singaporeans.

The second thing the Singapore government did was to intorduce the Self-Exclusion and Family Exclusion Schemes. Individuals could opt into these schemes so that they would be banned from the casinos and will not fall into temptation. Family members could apply for another family member to be banned so that there will not be any cases of a husband or wife spluging away all their hard-earned money at the casino, leaving the rest of the family.

Therefore, I can see that the Singapore government has put into place a lot of schemes so that the Singaporean citizen is protected. However, above all, it is still one's own responsibility to ensure that he exercises self-control so that he/ she will never fall into gambling addiction.