Should People on Welfare Be Allowed To Gamble?

Channel News Asia has a very interesting story regarding Singapore's upcoming casinos. There will be very strict regulations in place regarding the admission of prohibited persons. What will happen is that casinos will face penalties for admission of barred persons that could be as much as $1 million Singapore dollars or even the loss of the casino license. Other jurisdictions have policies and regulations regarding problem gamblers, forbidden persons and the like. Singapore is breaking new ground with what is called "third party exclusion orders."

What this means is that an outside party (like a government) is mandating certain persons to be excluded. Obviously known cheats or criminals would be normal persons subjected to a third party exclusion. In Singapore's case, the National Council on Problem Gambling is excluding people that don't fall in these obvious categories. They are excluding those that have undischarged bankruptcies and those on public assistance. This is a great idea. Why should deadbeats and welfare recipients be allowed to patronize casinos? They should be either paying their debts or getting a job, respectively.

This is something that should be implemented in the US but won't. Casinos want business and will scream if the states pushed this regulation on them but exempted state lotteries. Lotteries typically are played by lower income groups, many of which are on public assistance. People on welfare or disability really shouldn't be spending the money they get from taxpayers on gambling. Singapore, even though they are a small country, have a whole lot of common sense.