43,000 banned from S'pore casinos
Play
There has been a spike in the number of people banned from casinos in Singapore over the past year.
More than 15,600 people were issued third-party exclusion orders for the 10 months leading to March, taking the total to 43,519, up from the 27,882 at the end of May 2012.
The increase came largely as a result of some 15,000 people being banned by the Government because they were receiving financial aid from the Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF) ComCare, or had defaulted on Housing Board rental payments.
A person can be removed from the exclusion list once they stop receiving financial aid or settle rental debts, the National Council on Problem Gambling said. It released the figures recently.
The number of voluntary self-exclusion orders for foreigners also climbed to 92,744 in March, from 55,515 last May.
The council said this type of exclusion has been gaining ground among foreign workers, which employers attributed to more companies encouraging their workers to apply for the order.
Some have even made it a hiring requirement, saying that it is a preventive measure to protect workers from the ills of gambling, since they do not have to pay the $100 casino entry levy that Singaporeans have to pay.
At HEC Electrical & Construc-tion, for instance, all but one of the 150 or so foreign workers have applied for the order, finance and human resource manager Eliza Fong said. “They all understand that the company does not encourage gambling as it may lead to absenteeism and debtors calling up the office,” she said. “For the one worker who refused, we monitor him closely for signs of gambling.”
Others believe that workers should not be forced to ban themselves from casinos to keep jobs.
