2013_TPJC_H1_Econs_Answers

1   H1 Economics Tampines Junior College Preliminary Examination Suggested Answers Section A Question 1 The Rise of Singapore’s Integrated Resorts Extract 1: As Casino Begins, Watch for its Social Impacts From the inception of the idea for the first casino in 2004, it has met with much resistance among concerned citizens. Several groups, including the Muslim and Christian communities and social activists, expressed their disapproval to the casinos — a move that is both peculiar and noteworthy in apathetic Singapore society. Despite public worries over the negative social impact of casino gambling as well as opening of doors to undesirable activities including money laundering, prostitution, and organised crime, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in April 2005: 'After weighing the matter carefully, the Cabinet has collectively concluded that we had no choice but to proceed with the (Integrated Resorts) IRs.' As a social safeguard to combat excessive gambling, the gambling levy was put in place, together with the setting up of the National Council on Problem Gambling and measures such as ‘casino exclusion’, to stop problem gamblers and those in financial difficulties from entering the casinos in Singapore. Already, the crimes are rolling in along with the chips that the casino is raking in. It is inevitable. When you want to open something like a casino, you are really opening a can of worms. Hopefully, somehow, the money the casinos make and the shot in the arm for the tourism industry will be more than enough to cover the social costs. But how high a price can society afford to pay? Adapted from www.globalissues.org, 9 March 2010 Extract 2: Sin Galore Since opening last April the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino has become perhaps the most profitable in the world. Together with Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), another casino complex opened in Singapore and both are close to out-grossing the entire Las Vegas strip. Singapore seems to have gone from strait-laced container port to gambling mecca in one bound. Yet no one is bragging about it. The entrance to the MBS casino is curiously hard to find, tucked away in the basement. Neither casino is advertised anywhere in Singapore. For decades Singapore's government resisted pressure to allow casinos at all, fearful of the crime and social ills they might breed. When it finally relented, it insisted that access to the casinos by Singaporeans should be controlled. Foreign tourists enter free but locals must pay a hefty S$100. Also, the casinos must be part of larger entertainment complexes.

2   MBS, which is owned by America's Las Vegas Sands, markets itself as a business and convention centre. Its 57th-floor “skypod”, which seems to balance precariously atop three curving towers, is widely admired. Its infinity “skypool” is now the go-to destination for starlets who wish to splash around in bikinis for the cameras. It also has the world's biggest ballroom and a perfectly humungous shopping cen