Over the past decades, Singapore has utilized globalization to the fullest and experienced successful economic bloom. With the government's active support in tourism, the newly built casinos have brought tourist revenue to a stunning value of S$18.8 billion (Citrinot, 2011). Income generated from tourism in the form of foreign exchange earnings will be added to the national income and essentially contributes to the economic growth of Singapore. However, globalization is a double-edged sword; while it helps to boost a prosperous economy, there are insidious social effects that tag along. One of which is excessive gambling. To counter the problem of gambling, the social media could be greatly utilized and social safeguards have to be implemented to prevent addictive gambling. .
The problem of gambling is not new to Singapore. The Singapore Pools, established since 1968, was formed to tackle illegal gambling. Over the years, more betting channels and gambling systems evolved such as 4-D, Toto and SCORE (2000 & beyond, 2012). The increase in demand for legalized gambling shows that more Singaporeans are indulged into gambling activities. However, instead of discouraging gambling, the government did the converse. In order to remain competitive in the world's economy, globalization has caused the government in Singapore to believe that the economic benefits from the establishment of casinos will outweigh the negative social impacts from the encouragement of gambling. Undeniably, the success of Marina Bay Sands and Resort World Sentosa have created many job opportunities and catalyzed our economy. On the other hand, there is an increase in the number of problem gamblers seeking help from 304 cases in 2008, to 568 cases in 2011 ever since the opening of the casinos (Tai, 2011). When gamblers indulge into excessive gambling activities, they spend time and money at the expense of their family and friends.
