The Singapore government announced today that an additional 15,000 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs) will be prohibited from entering the two casinos in the city-state to strengthen existing social safeguards and to protect the financially vulnerable from casino gambling.

marina bay sands casino singapore 301008 From July 1, about 12,000 short to medium-term recipients of ComCare, a sustainable fund for assistance programmes for low-income Singaporeans, will be excluded from casinos.

Another 3,000 HDB flat tenants paying subsidised rents with rental arrears of six months or more will also be barred from Aug 1 this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

There are currently about 28,000 persons who are excluded from the casinos under third-party casino exclusion, including undischarged bankrupts and those receiving long-term public assistance and special grants.

The extensions to more financially vulnerable persons was earlier announced in February, with the target of moving proactively to address “the small but increasing proportion of low income gamblers who betted large amounts”.

The third-party casino exclusion is administered by the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Family Exclusion empowers a family that is adversely affected by a problem gambler to exclude the person from the casinos, while Self-Exclusion give individuals the choice to exclude themselves from the casinos if it is necessary.

- Bernama