I happened to catch the trailer for Singapore Talking one evening. The host mentioned something along the lines of gambling is on the rise and if it’s becoming a national culture.
Gambling isn’t becoming a national culture, I’m sure it already is. How can it be an emerging trend when we’ve had Singapore Pools (incidentally, Singapore Pools was established in 1968 as Singapore’s legal lottery operator by the Singapore Government) and home-hosted mahjong games the beginning of time?
The IRs have merely exacerbated the gambling issue by providing more gambling opportunities – encouraging it, even. The $100 levy imposed on Singaporeans and PRs is barely a deterrent if one is a consummate gambler or you have money to gamble away – you can always purchase a yearly membership for $2000. That’s going to the Marina Bay Sands casino at least 20 times in a year.
If you go once a week for a whole year, that’s 52 visits for $2000 – that’s so worth it.
Anyways, the gambling industry is lucrative. It seems almost everyone benefits. If you have a pretty good lucky streak, you can amass quite a fortune. And according to a recent article, the amount of betting taxes and Goods and Services Tax on business receipts collected from the two IRs came up to $420 million between April and November last year. Legalised money lenders are also seeing a rise in business.
(Imagine how much more business the loan sharks are getting these days.)
I don’t think I’ve been imagining the increased gambing-related crimes – those that were reported; what about unreported crimes?
Filed under: Politics, Gambling, IRs, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, Singapore Pools
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