Levy Not The Way to Deter

TheOnlineCitizen: http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/01/pawners-linked-to-casinos/

The Singapore government levies a S$100 fee on each Singapore or Singapore citizen who enters the casinos at Marina Bay Sands or Resorts World Sentosa. This is regardless of whether the person enters to play or to observe.

This blanket levy, to me, is akin to imposing foreign worker levy in hope of discouraging the hiring of foreign workers by companies in Singapore. It doesn’t.

The government has to understand (it probably does already) that people who badly want to gamble (the non-social gamblers) would willingly, without batting an eyelid, go all means to pay that S$100 to do so. They are already prepared to lose (or win) a lot when they gamble. $100 would b e a drop in the bucket for them.

If deterrence is the main priority, other methods should be devise such as a gambling loss limit that is pegged to one’s income imposed on them. I know it’s hard to administer (lots harder than simply making them pay S$100 upfront) but social programs are easy to administer in the first place and social problems too are not easy to solve.

Of course there could be many other better ways to help gamblers control when they lose self-control but a flat S$100 levy is certainly not a good measure.