Don't slay the goose that lays golden eggs

The Great Casino Debate has been a hot topic since the Prime Minister and the government first decided to build Integrated Resorts in Marina Bay and Sentosa. While there have been many social and economical gains and repercussions discussed and presented, one aspect we may have overlooked would be the degeneration of national psyche, as the author has rightly pointed out.

I agree with the author that despite the obvious gains in revenue the IRs might bring about, there are serious social and economical repercussions that come about with the building of a casino. Most obviously, having a casino and allowing locals to gamble means that more people will gamble and lose their money, and since low-income Singaporeans have strict restrictions on their gambling, it would therefore mean that middle- and high-income locals can gamble and lose all their money, thereby bringing economical destabilisation to Singapore. All sorts of crime ranging from robberies to blackmailing and even to murder can be linked to casinos, which will, without doubt, affect the socio-economical balance of the society in a magnitude that will definitely surpass the economical gains of having a casino.

As the author correctly states, Singapore has come through from third-world to first-world in a single generation by only the hard work and integrity and transparency of the people and their government. Singapore’s economy is essentially driven by people who work 80-hour work weeks and those who put in hard labour so that the government’s policies may be carried out. The presence of a casino in Singapore will undoubtedly unsettle some these bedrocks of society, just like addiction to gambling will cause corrosion to take place in the fundamental supports of the society, which is extremely vulnerable should even one corner of the supports collapse under the sheer weight of the casino, in metaphorical terms.

Therefore, as in Aesop’s fable of The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs, building a casino can be seen as a stupid move as it is equivalent to cutting open the goose just like cutting open the hard work that has seen our economy stabilise and become one of the best in Asia. The building of casinos in IRs would undoubtedly degrade the national psyche, which will cause people to believe that luck, not hard work and integrity, is the way for success and to strike it rich. As expected, this will have serious repercussions on the balance of our society and economy with workers all becoming addicted to gambling and unwilling to do anything else such as doing some proper work in terms of nation-building.

Therefore, while building casinos can provide lucrative job opportunities and certainly increase our revenue from tourism and make Singapore more attractive to foreigners, all the social and economical problems might make all of these backfire to cause Singapore to go backwards in terms of progress due to the transition from labour to luck. Not to mention, the final effect would be the degradation of national psyche which will severely affect the willingness of foreigners to even come to Singapore any more. Therefore, like the author, I urge the government to think thrice before they act, so as to not turn back 44 years of progress.