Singapore looking to curb online gambling

The Government of Singapore is apparently looking into measures to restrict Singaporean access to online gambling. So says Minister S Iswaran.

Speaking at at a Casino Regulatory Authority workplan seminar last week he told attendees that, “online gambling is a new and potentially more addictive form of gambling, with greater access to the young and vulnerable”. He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs was working with industry experts and regulatory authorities in other countries to understand how best to deal with the issue.

Virtually overnight, policy makers in Singapore have managed to cultivate a land-based casino market that now runs neck and neck with Las Vegas to be the world’s second largest behind Macau. A touch under $6 billion was lost at Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands in 2012…a good chunk of it by locals despite the token entry charge (S$100) they must pay to enter these casinos.

With this in mind, a skeptic could be forgiven for thinking that any measures introduced to curb online play are perhaps more motivated by concerns over gaming tax revenue slippage than concerns over problem gambling.

Motivations aside I suspect that once a course of action is agreed on by authorities in Singapore, it will be executed with a lot more vigour than we’ve seen from other countries in the past.