Singaporeans pay S$1.3b in casino entry fees

Singaporean citizens and permanent residents have paid about S$1.3 billion in casino entry fees since the island state’s two IRs opened in 2010, local media reports.

Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo gave the figure in parliament in response to a question about how much had been collected and whether the levy was effective in deterring problem gambling.

“The daily and annual entry levies serve to deter casual and impulse gambling by locals and are part of a holistic suite of social safeguards,” Channel News Asia cited Teo as saying. The number of local visitors to the casinos fell by 50 percent between 2010 and 2018.

The probable problem and pathological gambling rate also decreased from 2011’s 2.6 percent to 0.9 percent in 2017, she said.

The fee was raised in April this year to $150 a day from $100 a day, or $3,000 a year from $2,000 a year.

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