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Some countries are looking to Singapore as a model for how to bring in gambling without the side-effects. The country, which authorized two big casino-resorts as part of an effort turn the Southeast Asian city-state into a gambling and tourism magnet, is tightening what are already some of the strictest measures in Asia to control organized crime and gambling addiction. Junket operators -- middlemen that bring in wealthy high-rollers but which have also been linked to organized crime
-- are almost completely banned. Regulators also plan a big hike in the amount casino operators can be fined for breaking regulations that include charging locals 100 Singapore dollars ($81) a day to enter. The government also expanded a program banning people who are bankrupt or receiving welfare from entering casinos, raising the number to 43,000. Despite the measures, more low income players are betting bigger amounts, according to a 2011 survey by the National Council on Problem Gambling, while the Samaritans counseling hotline reports receiving an increasing number of calls involving problem gambling. "The gambling industry is not a sector that creates value-added products or services and therefore will have little impact on the development of the future economy," said Vincent Wijeysingha, treasurer of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party. "It does not contribute to the deepening of economic capacity or the introduction of new or innovative services or industrial techniques." In the Philippines, church leaders have spoken out against a $4 billion project that the government hopes will turn a site on Manila Bay into the country's version of the Las Vegas Strip. Casinos have been legal since 1977 but many are small and run-down. Foreign investors including Macau's Melco Crown Entertainment, Japanese pachinko tycoon Kazuo Okada's Universal Entertainment and Malaysia's Genting Bhd. are working separately with local partners on the project, which will include hotels, restaurants, museums, a marina and boardwalk and a monorail. The project, dubbed Entertainment City, is aimed at drawing wealthy foreign gamblers but church leaders say it would promote "a culture of gambling" in the conservative, majority Roman Catholic Philippines. Gambling "foments addiction, foments indolence, foments a mentality of chance and it destroys families," said Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz. In South Korea, Universal and two other companies plan to build resorts in a special economic zone near Incheon Airport on Yeongjong Island. The companies, which also include Caesar's Entertainment Corp. of the U.S. and South Korea's Paradise Group, are scheduled to break ground in September 2013, said Lee Woo-hyung, director of tourism and culture department at the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority. Some are skeptical that the projects can rival the profits made in Macau, which has benefited from a seemingly endless stream of mainland Chinese gamblers. Beijing has been happy to let its wealthy gamble their fortunes away in Macau, a special administrative region of China. But it might start clamping down on exit permissions to prevent citizens from boosting a regional rival's gambling tax coffers if geopolitical tensions flare. That risk is most acute in the Philippines, which has sparred with Beijing over a disputed shoal, said Grant Govertsen, managing partner of Union Gaming Research Macau. "You're entirely dependent on the good graces of Beijing to be successful," said Govertsen. "And I don't like those odds."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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