In regard to the report “Institute for the Study of Commercial
Gaming,” Wan et al. (2011) indicated that the percentage of pathological
gamblers in Macau increased from 4.3% in 2003 to 6.0% in
2007, but this problem is less acute in Hong Kong and Singapore
than it is in Macau. As observed from Soc8 in Table 3, even though
the selected item “There are more problem gamblers” is ranked
seventh in both places, the mean of the responses to this item from
Macau residents was found to be 4.59, which is slightly higher than
the mean of 3.96 found from the responses of the Singapore residents.
The analytical findings for Soc8 could be reasonably treated
as a positive echo of the above-mentioned investigation conducted
by Wan, Li, and Kong in 2011. The difference of problem-gambler
rates among Macau, Hong Kong, and Singapore may be partially
attributed to the different managerial systems of social controls. For
example, related social institutes in Singapore develop the
following risk-management systems to reduce the increase in
problem-gamblers: casino exclusion system, casino visit limit system,
family and community support system, legal and financial
advisory service, and so forth (Sing, 2012). Otherwise, casino
business in Singapore only occupies very small percentages from
the entire operation of the so-called “integrated resort casino”,
indicating that its development is clearly distinct from traditional
casino and casinoehotel complexes in Macau and Hong Kong (Uy,
2014).
Of course, problem gamblers could be concealed within every
social class, and they may not be easy for ordinary people, who are
not professionally trained to diagnose this condition, to recognize.
Thus, regardless of whether the problem gamblers have gradually
increased, after the establishment of casino gambling in Singapore,
it is a worthy topic to which governmental offices pay a lot of
attention. Moreover, Wan (2012) mentioned that the rise of materialism,
the sentimental depression of learning, the indifference
within family relationships, and the lack of parentechild care were
the most observed social problems caused by the operations of
casino gambling. Although the problematic issues of social impact
discussed by Wan were not completely surveyed in this study, two
other social problems (“Work time is unfixed” and “Social values
are distorted”), which resulted in Soc11 and Soc12, as shown in
Table 3, could more or less overlap, particularly from the perspective
of “Social values are distorted.”
In terms of economic concerns, as demonstrated in Table 4,
there are two items that were similarly ranked in the top three
(Eco3 and Eco12) and two items that were in the bottom three
(Eco8 and Eco9) for both places. This finding indicates that the
survey respondents from Macau and Singapore, who are mostly
Chinese, commonly consider that the operations of casino
gambling trigger inflation and stimulate consumption but do not
believe that these operations would cause bankruptcy for small and
medium enterprises and narrow the job opportunities for young
people. This type of research finding was also similarly observed by
other scholars: the study conducted by Wan (2012) indicated that
inflation, the rising of rent prices, the increase in costs, and other
negative impacts that are triggered by the development of casino
gambling have already been identified. In addition, Vong (2008)
also suggested that the majority of residents in Macau believe
that casino gambling and the booming economy has led to a high
cost of living, inflation, and increases in commercial properties.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Eco7 (ranking as 1st), Eco10 (4th
in ranking), and Eco12 (ranking as 2nd) are the economic influences
that were identified by most of the survey respondents in Macau.
Although Eco7, Eco10, and Eco12 are ranked in Singapore as 5th,
4th, and 1st, their potential economic impacts should not be
neglected.
In general, when every government considers whether the
country needs to develop casino gambling, governmental