zenn bites...

ok...so the story is out...the father was a gambler who lost loads of money and was tens of thousands of dollars in debt, according to their church's er...spokesman(?)...

see...the evils of gambling...i burst out laughing when the church guy went on about how gambling is bad...no offense, but he sounded like an anti-casino ad...the timing is uncanny, don't you think? what with all that debacle about whether we should have a casino in singapore...made it seem like some anti-casino group put them up to it.

gracie and i lived right next to crown casino when we were in melbourne. ( boohoo i miss our gorgeous apartment =( ) it was fun - the 24-hour entertainment, food and shopping - a part of the city that never slept.

but there was the dark side - the great unwashed who haunted the casino, the ones who lost all time trying to win back their lives, the ones who gambled their tuition fees away, and the brawls of the drunks and the desperates.

those were not pretty sights, and i think they are the same in every casino.

no matter how much you try to control things, no matter how many stringent guidelines are in place, gambling is an evil that can completely take over the minds of those who don't watch themselves. it is so easy to get all swept up in the adrenaline of winning, the hope of recooping your losses. the lights, the people, the hustle and bustle.

the surreal timelessness inside a casino can, and has, held many imprisoned.

but of course, the presence of a casino can boost our economy, aid the tourism industry, and provide some new form of entertainment on the island. plus, maybe it's better that singaporeans lose their heads (and money) in their home-casino, rather than in some overseas building of doom.

either way...the house will always win.