More leave home to flee gambling debts
ALICE Lim, 56, came home one day in March to find red and yellow paint splashed all over her door, and her husband?s belongings and passport gone from their bedroom.
It was only then that she found out that her husband, Richard (not his real name), owed more than $150,000 to loansharks after chalking up debts in the past six months at the Resorts World casino. She is one of the increasing number of spouses whose husbands run away after losing and borrowing large amounts of money at the casinos. The Crime Library here says that they have been approached by 60 spouses this year - up from just 20 cases last year.
Casino-no. Pic taken from above link (ST Online)
Let's face it. Gambling and crime go hand in hand. Casionos mean big time gambling, which in turn means big time crime. If you don't believe me, let's listen to someone who has seen it first hand. Let's get it from Mr Wang from MrWangSaysSo, who happens to be an ex-DPP, who only knows too well about crimes in Singapore.
George Yeo and His True Legacy for Singapore
Casinos strike me as a rich, natural breeding ground for many types of crimes. Casinos are to criminals what garbage dumps are to rats, or shit is to houseflies. Specifically, a casino environment is supportive of the following species of criminal offences - theft, robbery, extortion, cheating, drug trafficking, consumption of illegal drugs, illegal moneylending, money laundering, vice activities, human trafficking and other immigration-related offences.Mr Wang proceeds to give a host of real life gambling related crimes in his article above.
The two casinos have opened only in the recent past, so some of you will argue that it is too early to say if I am right or wrong. In fact I hope to be proven wrong about what I have said about the casinos - for who would want to live in a crime-infested country? Nevertheless, we can already begin to get a flavour of George Yeo's true legacy for Singapore.
So why can't we just ban Singaporeans from casinos and stop this increasing crime rate, related to gambling? The answer is simple. The casinos bring in big $$$$$ for the govt. But then, the govt won't be able to say that directly. So it has to get agencies to tell you that casinos aren't so evil.
And who tells you that. Yeah, it had to be the Institute of Mental Health. Like they're the authority to tell you about gambling related crimes.
IRs here have not created more gambling addicts: CRA
The presence of the Integrated Resorts (IRs) here has not caused a spike in the number of gambling addicts, said Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) chairman Richard Magnus yesterday, citing a study done by the Institute of Mental Health.A study by the Institute of Mental Health is taken as the authority to decide casinos don't affect gamblers in Singapore? It does not matter if the number of gamblers who are addicts did not increase. That's not the point. The point now is that gambling itself has increased and that is causing much more problems.
Speaking at a question and answer session at the 23rd Singapore Law Review Annual Lecture, Mr Magnus said that the study concluded that gambling addiction numbers before and after the establishment of the IRs remained the same.
What the IRs did, though, was provide "just another avenue for gambling", said Mr Magnus.
Mr Magnus' talk is bull. It is akin to a situation where you say that the number alcoholics have not increased. But because alcohol now is made more available, these addicts are now drinking more and hence more drunken driving accidents are caused. So let's not worry about it, because studies have shown that the number of alcoholics have not risen, never mind the number of those killed on the roads because of drunken driving has. Double-duh!
There is no denying that gambling related crimes has risen sharply ever since the casinos have opened in Singapore. But casinos bring in big $$$$$ for the companies and of course, the govt. That's the real reason why the govt won't bar Singaporeans from the casinos.
Gamblers and families of gamblers, you're on your own. Don't expect the govt to alleviate your self-inflicted gambling ills.
"Ask not what your country will do for you, because they will do nothing for you..." - famous quote from Anonymous.
8 comments:
a fact - racist canada does not prevent its people in entering its numerous casinos all over racist canada.
a fact - racist Oz does not prevent its people entering backholes all over racist Oz.
How about going one further: "No dogs and Sinkies allowed." I can't believe the author of this blog is actually promoting this kind of nonsense.
Perhaps I should do what other blog admins do. Start removing spams.
better still : no money-face, good-for-nothing filipinos and their extremely difficult to understand accent, allowed, ever.
I am not a gambler. However, I would like to be able to enter a casino in my country if there is one. It would be pretty offensive if foreigners could enter the casino and not Singaporeans. That would be too paternalistic of the government for me. Am sure there are others who agree as well.
- Overseas Singaporean
Why should Singaporeans be barred from casinos?
/// After all, before the IRs in Singapore came into existence, Singaporeans never had the chance to visit these casinos. So there's no loss to these addictive gamblers anyway, is there? ///
There is.
The key words are "addictive gamblers". Befor the IRs were built, these gamblers were going to Genting Highlands on regular basis to get their fixes. Such die-hard gamblers, including your Ah Pek and Ah Soh, are going on cruises to nowhere so that they can gamble on the casino ships.
I think the government is being pragmatic. These addicted gamblers are going to gamble anyway - whether in Genting Highlands, Macau, Las Vegas on the cruise ships. Isn't it better that they are allowed to gamble here so that their money are more or less retained in Singapore, instead of flowing to other countries.
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