Joecities

Two casinos !

Singapore's competitors in the region would also build integrated resorts, and if Singapore had said no, the investors would go elsewhere.

Mr Lee revealed that 11 out of the 19 companies who had submitted concept proposals said they would proceed with their plans whether Singapore had one or two casinos.

"If we reject these integrated resort projects, the world's investors and players will mentally scratch us off," he added.

This is a very interesting argument. For the first time, the holes in the reasoning of the Singapore government are blatantly obvious.

First off, they announced that they were thinking about a Casino.

Then they said there were no definite plans, they were just playing with the idea.

And now, "after worldwide publicity for a year" they say it would be a 'wrong signal' not to do it ?

Who's twisting their arm here ? I'd be interested to see what sort of tax arrangements/profit sharing has been proposed and understand the incentives behind it. If reputation is the primary factor, where should the line be drawn ? I'm sure there could be enough incentive to import other vices in. Marijuana ? A porn industry ? They'd easily provide the jobs there're talking about, along with most of the other justfications.

The other issue I have is also along the lines of reputation. If fear of turning away investors is the problem, doesn't bringing in a Casino contradict that ? It's a well known fact that Singapore is known as a low corruption, stable, problem-free state. A casino would arguably throw a spanner in that 'brand'.

I would expect loan-shark activity to increase, marriages to be affected and a higher frequency of criminal breach of trust cases by white collar workers embezzling money to repay their debts.

Big mistake. In my opinion. Does more harm than good. On the other hand, it's also nice to see Singapore becoming more open minded.