mrbrown: Why build a casino if you don't want people to gamble?
Looks like the free ride is over. The Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) had to cancel their free shuttle bus services from the heartlands and the city area, after the government stepped in.
Some folks and members of Parliament complained that the buses were ferrying locals to the casinos, and The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) saw it as the Integrated Resorts promoting gambling among heartlanders.
Soon after the complaints from the anti-gambling lobby, Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) stepped in and the buses stopped operating. It seems that a free bus service to the resorts will somehow lead more people to gamble.
Other anti-gambling measures
Oh look! The Integrated Resorts offer the use of their toilets, free of charge! They must be trying to entice locals to gamble with this nefarious scheme!
When innocent locals use these free toilets, they may decide to visit the casino after taking a leak, you see! We'd better get the Casino Regulatory Authority on the case and shut those free loos down.
In fact, that new Marina Coastal Expressway that leads to the Marina Bay Sands? The one that is costing taxpayers billions of dollars? Surely that is also making it too easy for locals to get to the Sands to gamble. We should divert the Expressway so it never stops at the Sands.
In fact, let's make it really hard for locals to get to either casino resort. Let's make locals disembark at least five kilometers from the IRs. Only foreigners with valid passports can reach the resort entrances by car.
Wait! Wait! I have another great new rule: locals must SWIM across the Straits of Malacca if they want to get to Resorts World Sentosa, whether they are going there to gamble or not.
I am a little disappointed that I did not get to try the free buses while they operated. Everyone knows what a pain it is to get to Sentosa by public transport and car, so any free shuttle service would have been welcome. Also, I am a sucker for free stuff.
I feel a little sorry for the 60 bus drivers it will put out of work too.
Frankly, I doubt if this will stop the ones who want to gamble. It already costs S$100 for a local to enter the casinos for 24 hours. Is taking away a free bus service really going to stop them?
You are better off leaving the free bus service alone and charging S$200 (US$142) per entry instead. S$200 not enough to deter locals? How about S$200, no free shuttle buses, AND a kidney per entry?
Having it both ways
Anyway, I think it is hypocritical to build a casino in Singapore and then try to stop locals from patronizing it. What casino operator in his right mind would build a casino and a host of other hotel and convention facilities around it only for overseas customers?
And who are we trying to kid, calling them Integrated Resorts, haha! The word CASINO is one of the biggest signs on their premises. (Stand by for the Casino Regulatory Authority's new ruling on reduced font sizes for any sign with the word "Casino" on it. Sorry IRs, I don't mean to give them ideas.)
Yet, Singapore thinks it can pull it off. Have its cake and eat it.
Have a casino that is there but not really there, existing in some Twilight Zone only foreigners can enter. Enjoy the money it will bring, but not the vices and social problems.
Already, pawn shops are here and advertising on TV. None of them show the real reason people visit pawn shops, of course.
Just a bunch of happy people buying things they can't afford, for their loved ones, by hocking their gold watches and wedding jewelry, in commercials hosted by local tv celebrities.
But pawns shops and casinos are best buds. When I was in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, there were entire streets lined with pawn shops, their neon signs flashing a warm welcome to all who needed extra cash for a round at the tables.
In Singapore, according to the commercials, the pawn shops are here to help you buy a PC for your boyfriend, who needs it for work. Awwww.
From the looks of it, Resorts World Sentosa operated a better bus service than the local public transport companies. They had 19 pickup points and operated long hours, ferrying folks efficiently to Sentosa.
We should let RWS be the third public transport company! I am sure they will do a great job, even if all their buses mysteriously terminate at Sentosa.
I have a better idea. RWS should just redeploy all those buses and give free shuttle services from the heartlands to their sister property at Genting Highlands, Malaysia. I hear they have a nice resort there too.
