The Singapore Commentator

Singaporeans have had their chance to have their views aired on the casino debate.

Casino debate gets a public airing on TV
THE casino debate was given a concerted public airing yesterday, with Singaporeans seemingly still torn on whether having one would be good for the country...

MediaCorp put the seal on a multi-platform national debate through an hour-long programme called High Stakes: The Casino Debate, aired last night on Channel NewsAsia (CNA). The programme featured a studio panel hosted by Ms Diana Ser, with Today CEO and editor-in-chief Mano Sabnani and Institute of Policy Studies research fellow Dr Gillian Koh as panellists.

Letters from Today readers, comments from NewsRadio listeners, online postings and emails to CNA’s website were read out during the show.

Viewers also followed two Singaporeans who visited the casino at Genting Highlands recently...

Andy Mukherjee of Bloomberg thinks that Singapore will have its casino anyway.

Singapore’s trump card
Las Vegas casinos can’t wait to come to Singapore. And although groups like Families Against the Casino Threat in Singapore and the National Council of Churches of Singapore are putting up a strong protest, they will probably lose...

The decision appears to be a foregone conclusion, especially since the government has already planned safeguards for the local population...

What’s important is that legalized gambling is one of the few businesses left where Singapore has an edge over other Asian nations, because casino operators are forced to choose their locations not based on the size of the market, wage costs or availability of raw materials, but purely based on which place is open enough to receive them, warts and all...

Maybe Andy Mukherjee only watches Bloomberg, not Channel NewsAsia.