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By Will Smale
BBC News Online business reporter
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Singapore has in-built competitive advantages for
gamblers
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If even the famously conservative Singaporean
government is considering allowing its first ever casino, the
gambling industry must be hot indeed.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has
announced plans for a casino resort, hoping to cash in on the
wildfire expansion of gambling around Asia.
The announcement reflects a cultural sea-change:
whereas gambling and casinos were once widely frowned upon, today
they are fast-growing, both in terms of social acceptability and
industry-wide revenues.
While Las Vegas continues to see visitor numbers
ever expand, and the UK government plans to greatly liberalise
Britain's casino industry, Singapore is the latest country to
consider placing a bet on boosting its gambling
revenues.
And in terms of geographical position it is in
exactly the right place, with most gambling industry analysts
seeing the Far East as the biggest growth area of all, driven in
the main by the Chinese. Gambling remains illegal in mainland
China, sending risk-hungry punters overseas.
Big business
At present Chinese people who wish to gamble
legally mainly visit Macau, the former Portuguese colony on the
Chinese coast west of Hong Kong, which has long been a gambling
magnet.
New casinos are being built across the Far
East
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Add casinos in other countries such as Malaysia,
the Philippines, and Cambodia, and Asia's legal gambling industry
is valued at about $14bn (£7.7bn) a year. You can bet your bottom
dollar that Singapore is now thinking that it would like its share
of this rather lucrative pie.
And with Singapore wishing to move its economy
more towards the service sector, as its manufacturing base
continues to be hit by fast-growing Chinese competition, a shiny
new casino could help boost tourist numbers.
"If gambling is one of the things [tourists] want
to do, then maybe we should allow them to do that, find some way to
do that, and as a result of that over 10 years double the [tourist]
traffic volume. I think we should think about it," said Singapore's
new prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Such a casino would also help Singapore recover
much of the $180m a year it is estimated that Singaporeans spend
each year in neighbouring Malaysian casinos.
Very popular
But with more casinos meaning more tourists and
revenues for the global gambling industry, and increased tax
revenues for the respective governments, what exactly is in it for
the punters?
Las Vegas wishes to attract more Asian
visitors
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"Essentially it is good fun," said a spokesman
for UK firm Ladbrokes, which runs an online casino.
"People want to have an enjoyable time, and
betting at a casino - off-line or on-line - is
exciting."
The Singapore government is now seeking public
feedback before making its decision in January.
Its proposal has however already received an
enthusiastic response from some of the global casino heavyweights,
such as US giant Las Vegas Sands, which said it would pump in as
much as $2bn to operate a Singapore casino.
Possible dangers
Yet while any Singaporean casino would
undoubtedly be popular, Singapore will not have things its own way
- Las Vegas Sands recently opened a shiny new casino in Macau, and
more foreign owned facilities are to follow in the Chinese Special
Administrative Region.
While away in Las Vegas, merging MGM
Mirage/Mandalay Resort and Harrah's/Caesars, both have ambitious
plans to attract more visitors from the Far East.
Yet the more immediate problem for the
Singaporean Government is local opposition.
Both Christian and Muslim groups have already
expressed their concern, warning that any casino would fuel
gambling addiction, crime and inflict social ills in what is one of
Asia's safest societies.
"Singapore needs to be aware of the problems a
casino will create," said a spokesman for the Gordon House
Association, a UK-based organisation that offers assistance to
addicted gamblers.
"While the vast majority of the population will
be fine, a minority will be severely affected.
"It will be interesting to see how Singapore
tackles this problem."
Meanwhile some of Singapore's avid gamblers are
up in arms at plans to limit casino access to only the wealthy,
with proposals to literally ban people on low incomes.
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