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23-10-2010, 06:55 AM
Oct 23, 2010
the BLUE- COLLAR WORKER
Escaping the drudgery of the daily grind
IT IS 4.30am on a Sunday at the casino in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). Sub-contractor Ah Lang, 48, pulls up a chair at a pontoon table and starts playing, betting between $25 and $200.
He has been at it since 10pm the night before, moving from table to table, playing blackjack, baccarat and pontoon, all of them card games.
With a grimace, he says that he is down $600.
'If you include the entry levy, that's $700. Time to go if I lose $1,000. My luck's been really lousy tonight,' he says.
In fact, it hasn't been all that great since the casino opened. 'I lose eight times out of 10. I should be at home sleeping but unfortunately I have this bad habit,' he says ruefully in Mandarin.
Although he has made about a dozen trips to the casino since it opened, he has decided not to sign up for an annual membership. 'That would only give me more incentive to come. Already, I think I must have forked out about $6,000 or $7,000 in 'tuition fees',' the father of two teens says, using a wry analogy to describe how much he has gambled away.
His shop assistant wife, he says, is unhappy about his casino outings.
'She used to nag at me for spending so much on 4-D each week. Now it's worse. But what to do, she can't stop me,' says the stocky man.
The casinos are a magnet for many blue-collar workers such as Mr Ah Lang who go there, not for the food or entertainment, but for the thrill of gambling.
Dr Brian Yeo, consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, says casinos can hold special appeal for this group.
'They work hard, and for many blue-collar workers, casinos are a total escape from their world of drudgery. And this can be very dangerous because the environment tempts you to take risk and throw bets,' he says.
'They also have limited time so they spend their weekends and public holidays there. And because they have paid $100 as entry levy, they would want to make full use of it and spend more time in there. That too is very dangerous.'
Mechanic Thomas Leong, 38, is already seated at a blackjack table at RWS at 8.30am on the same Sunday morning.
'It costs me $100 to enter so I might as well start early,' says the bachelor, who took about 11/2hours to travel by bus from his home in Bedok.
Before the local casinos came along, he took a few trips to Genting Highlands each year.
'I come here just once a month, so I won't pay the $2,000 annual membership,' says Mr Leong, who bets between $25 and $100 each hand and once lost $2,500 at the gaming tables.
'But I've also won; the most was about $2,000. So far, give or take a couple of hundred dollars, I would say I'm even.
'I'm not married, I don't have a family so I'm spending my own money. And it's not as though I'm gambling thousands away,' rationalises the stocky man, who lives with his parents.
Asked if the casinos are a good thing, he shrugs his shoulders. 'What do you expect me to say? Aiyah, there is good and bad in everything.'
Perhaps Madam T.L. Tan, 46, sums it up best.
The machine operator and mother of three, who visits RWS once every few weeks, says: 'If you make money, the casinos are, of course, good lah.'
'But if you lose, then bad lor.'
WONG KIM HOH
the BLUE- COLLAR WORKER
Escaping the drudgery of the daily grind
IT IS 4.30am on a Sunday at the casino in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). Sub-contractor Ah Lang, 48, pulls up a chair at a pontoon table and starts playing, betting between $25 and $200.
He has been at it since 10pm the night before, moving from table to table, playing blackjack, baccarat and pontoon, all of them card games.
With a grimace, he says that he is down $600.
'If you include the entry levy, that's $700. Time to go if I lose $1,000. My luck's been really lousy tonight,' he says.
In fact, it hasn't been all that great since the casino opened. 'I lose eight times out of 10. I should be at home sleeping but unfortunately I have this bad habit,' he says ruefully in Mandarin.
Although he has made about a dozen trips to the casino since it opened, he has decided not to sign up for an annual membership. 'That would only give me more incentive to come. Already, I think I must have forked out about $6,000 or $7,000 in 'tuition fees',' the father of two teens says, using a wry analogy to describe how much he has gambled away.
His shop assistant wife, he says, is unhappy about his casino outings.
'She used to nag at me for spending so much on 4-D each week. Now it's worse. But what to do, she can't stop me,' says the stocky man.
The casinos are a magnet for many blue-collar workers such as Mr Ah Lang who go there, not for the food or entertainment, but for the thrill of gambling.
Dr Brian Yeo, consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, says casinos can hold special appeal for this group.
'They work hard, and for many blue-collar workers, casinos are a total escape from their world of drudgery. And this can be very dangerous because the environment tempts you to take risk and throw bets,' he says.
'They also have limited time so they spend their weekends and public holidays there. And because they have paid $100 as entry levy, they would want to make full use of it and spend more time in there. That too is very dangerous.'
Mechanic Thomas Leong, 38, is already seated at a blackjack table at RWS at 8.30am on the same Sunday morning.
'It costs me $100 to enter so I might as well start early,' says the bachelor, who took about 11/2hours to travel by bus from his home in Bedok.
Before the local casinos came along, he took a few trips to Genting Highlands each year.
'I come here just once a month, so I won't pay the $2,000 annual membership,' says Mr Leong, who bets between $25 and $100 each hand and once lost $2,500 at the gaming tables.
'But I've also won; the most was about $2,000. So far, give or take a couple of hundred dollars, I would say I'm even.
'I'm not married, I don't have a family so I'm spending my own money. And it's not as though I'm gambling thousands away,' rationalises the stocky man, who lives with his parents.
Asked if the casinos are a good thing, he shrugs his shoulders. 'What do you expect me to say? Aiyah, there is good and bad in everything.'
Perhaps Madam T.L. Tan, 46, sums it up best.
The machine operator and mother of three, who visits RWS once every few weeks, says: 'If you make money, the casinos are, of course, good lah.'
'But if you lose, then bad lor.'
WONG KIM HOH
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