I have been asked by the organizers of the Graduate Christian Fellowship to speak briefly on the social impact aspect in the Singapore Casino issue. The topic of this forum is: What is Luck? The Casino Gamble.

I can speak from my fourteen years of ministry as Christian pastor and school principal in Macao – a city that was once designated as the City of God that is turned into a gambling spot – that the social impact of casinos is mixed. There are both social ills and benefits. The social ills are well known. Drugs, vices, and corruption follow the heels of casino operations. The host society would become increasingly dependent on casino revenue for its maintenance. In Macao for example, casino and tourism income account for 70 to 80 percent of the government revenue. More importantly, casino is iconic. This is to say, casino cannot operate under the covers of darkness, as illicit sex and drug trade are able to. Nor can it be regulated as lottery can be. The success of casino operation depends on publicity. Singapore must publicize itself as the place for gambling in the region. Images of casino buildings will be superimposed on the image of the merlion in tourist guides, in the same way as images of glitzy new Venetian casinos go hand in hand with that of the ruins of St Paul’s (University) in Macao. Out of noble traditions and local legends, there now rise the new towers of Babel!

At the same time, casino operations do bring about immense social benefits. One cannot imagine how Macao could remain viable and became a haven for refugees from Southeast Asia in the 1960s and new migrants from mainland China from the 1980s except for casino revenues. The revenue generated allows the government to embark on ambitious educational reform and provide a high standard of social and health care for the general population. Hence, casino business can create a degree of social stability especially for cities that live under the shadows, and perhaps threats, of stronger neighbours.

So much for "social impact" as perhaps one might expect to hear from someone who has lived in a casino town. Christian theologians and ethicists however are not diviners for possible trends and social outcomes. Such predictions are best left to policy analysts in the governmental services and to social scientists. The very title “The Casino Gamble” provides the key towards a Christian understanding the social impact. I use the term “understanding” advisedly. For the social responsibility of the Christian community should not be cast in terms of either reacting or supporting governmental policies. Such mentality presupposes that the issues at stake have already been analyzed and agreed upon by the whole society. All that is left for the Christian community to do is to decide whether it should support or oppose the decision to have casinos in Singapore.

But are the issues clear? The crux of the matter is the term "Gamble". Individuals and communities gamble in all sorts of ways. However and whatever way we gamble, we gamble for something. In this case, Singapore society needs to ask itself: What are we gambling for? The term “we” is deliberate. Casinos say something about the collective society. For the issue of casino operation is not simply a private and individual matter. I think it is misleading to argue from the premise that risk-taking is integral to life, and perhaps even to be encouraged for social progress, and then proceed to reason that gambling, and by extension casinos are morally neutral activities. Such reasoning ignores the structural questions that are unique to casinos. There are two prominent social features in casino operation. Firstly, it is an encroaching business. It is not something like a mahjong house that can operate in isolation. It must receive government sanctions. Furthermore, governments may organize lotteries and all sorts of gambling. However, casino cannot survive other than in the form of international corporations. It promotes a certain global lifestyle. Like the tobacco business, it is fast moving out of more developed countries for fear of litigation, and is targeting economically vulnerable societies to further its own financial gains. Secondly, it promotes a spirit of unhealthy competition between vulnerable societies. Cities in the same region compete against each other to attract gamblers.

Our Christian belief in the triune God however holds out a different vision for us. In brief:

1. Our belief in God the Father and Creator of all commits us to work for the common welfare. This is to say, the casino issue cannot be isolated from the wider questions of our social vision. The Gamble is not something that only concerns the individual, as if we can say: all are mature adults; we just leave it to them to make their bet and bear the consequences. Casinos say something about our societies, and how we organize our priorities.

2. This leads secondly to the confession that our belief in God the Son, the Redeemer of humankind, commits us to think through how communities should bear each other’s burden. How wide are our social horizons? How does casino fit into such vision? How is it coordinated with the wider questions of our social and moral responsibilities to our neighbouring countries, bearing in mind the unhealthy competitive spirit it would bring? Can one society and nation prosper and pursue its own interest in isolation from others? Can Singapore be so clinically separated from its neigbours, that (to use the metaphor of the recent tsunami tragedy) it can be shielded by the land masses of its neighbours, and let them be afflicted, whilst it dwells in safety? How can we pursue economic interests and build up viable communities together?

3. And thirdly, our belief in God the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life, commits us to affirm and foster local initiatives and individual gifts within our society. Casinos lead to totalitarian societies, where interests and careers of young people are channeled to the gaming and tourism industries. Young university graduates from all disciplines in Macao are often left with little choice but to be employed in gaming-relating companies. There is no other way out, especially if the area of the town is only 23 square kilometers! How can young people in this (geographically relatively small) island republic be given the opportunity to pursue and excel in their differing interests?

In closing, is the Gamble worth it? Before we have anything to say to the wider society, the Christian community should be the first to audit its own communal life. In what ways are we living out a different social vision before our fellow Singaporeans?