Singapore is winning big thanks to the new casinos

The two casinos are earning more than SG$16 million a day — or a prospective SG$6 billion a year.

Resort World Sentosa alone could hit a SG$1-billion profit jackpot in 2010.

Revenue-wise, the overall big winner is Singapore, which has attracted some four million new tourists.

It has become the second biggest casino market in Asia after Macau, and looks set to replace Las Vegas as the second biggest revenue earner after Macau in three years' time

Despite its size, Quek's story pales in comparison to the tragedy of Chia Teck Leng, nicknamed Singapore's “King of Gamblers.”

In 2005, Chia, 44, was sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for committing the largest commercial fraud in history.

The then finance executive of an MNC, he swindled four banks of SG$117 million to feed his gambling habit.

He gambled big and lost big in casinos in Australia, Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines, which sometimes flew him there in private jets.

Chia's precise losses were not known, but it was not too far behind the world record held by US businessman, Terrence Watanable, who lost US$127 million over a year in Las Vegas.

The others included Zhenli Ye Gon, who blew US$125 million at The Strip and Australian billionaire, Kerry Packer, who reportedly lost up to US$40 million in 10 months.

The recent cases of mega-losses have stirred up more public derision than sympathy.

But the society's overriding concern remains the potential negative impact on society at large.

Before the casinos came, Singaporeans were already spending SG$6 billion a year on legal gambling, plus another SG$1.5 billion in cruises and offshore casinos.

Two years ago, a government survey found about 1.95 million Singaporean adults — or 54 percent — had indulged in some form of gambling in the previous year.

“Pathological gamblers” make up to 1.6 percent, or 56,000 people.

To minimize widespread casino gambling, the government has imposed a SG$100 entry fee per day, and allows families to apply to stop a habitual gambling member from going in.

Has it worked? It does not seem so.

Sadly, up to a million Singaporeans are predicted to want to try their luck this year.

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