Sex bombed

From ‘Tom Jones’ concert cancelled ten minutes in’ 26 March 2010 Asiaone news

Ten minutes into the concert, which was held at Resorts World Sentosa, Tom Jones shocked the crowd by announcing that he’d have to postpone the concert as he had a bad sore throat and was unwell. He had sung two songs.

(Stella Lee) “I thought he was joking at first but when the lights came up I couldn’t believe it. He should have called it off earlier this afternoon if he was unwell. What a waste of time”

It’s not unusual that in Tim Burton’s movie Mars Attacks, Tom Jones also left a casino performance prematurely, though at the time with the world at the mercy of little green men, it was a valid excuse.

Sings shoots and leaves

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Casino toilet unlucky

From “So hard to find toilet at Resorts World” posted 24 March 2010 in  Stomp website

(Stomp reader) Looking for a toilet at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Since our RWS casino is reputed to be world class, there should be toilets on every level and not just on level 2.

My ‘feng shui’ friend told me that when my luck is good and I need to use the toilet, the long journey to the toilet and the return journey will sever my chain of luck.

I believe the reason why feng shui is so popular these days is that you always have something to blame on other than yourself when your chips are down. Even if the complainant manages to book a table within 5 metres of the nearest urinal, he’ll start blaming something else for his arse luck, like getai songs, spilled water, draft directions or the colour of the croupier’s bowtie

Shouldn't the 'Greater than' sign on top be after "Lift to Casino" instead?

House of the rising fumes

From When smoke gets in your dice 24 march 2010 Article in Today online

Others were bemused as to why smoking was allowed in the casino in the first place, given Singapore’s strict laws banning smoking in enclosed spaces such as nightspots, hawker centres, restaurants and car parks, among other public places.

“Are there double standards involved here?” wondered Today letter-writer Wee Hsiang Ling, who was surprised to see areas demarcated for smokers at the RWS casino.

The decision to exclude gaming halls from the smoking ban was made in 2008. This was on condition the latter drew up “house rules” to protect non-smokers

Bad pun headlining the article aside, the reason for the exemption is succinctly given later in the article. “Some industry estimates that up to 85% of gamblers tend to be smokers”. i.e no-smoking zones are bad for business. From a practical standpoint, you can’t have fume boxes either because that means getting gamblers off their hotseats. House rules, after all, are the most made-to-be-broken ones. It’s like telling a couple not to hold hands on your living room couch. They get away with nothing more than a stern little wag of the finger and will never get booted out of your party.

Cabbies at casino

From Tough hailing or booking a taxi:Are cabbies heading for casino? 4 March 2010 ST Forum online

IT HAS been difficult to hail or book a cab recently.

Are taxi drivers hanging out at the new casino, depriving the rest of us of their services? Or are they purposely holding out for booking fees and prime-time rates? Why don’t the bus companies increase the frequency of overcrowded buses?

Well you can’t expect them to send tourists there and resist the glitzy lure of easy money and easy girls and not hang around a while, do you? Coming soon to an island near you: RWS Line with Harbourfront and Changi Airport as interchanges. Overcrowded buses is nothing new, with or without the casino.

Got Getai how to huat?

From ‘Getai not pantang’ article, 1 March 2010 TNP

(Mrs Tan) “Having getai inside the casino is too noisy. It’s hard to concentrate.”

Not to mention its association with the Hungry Ghost Festival.

(She) felt that superstitious patrons might be pantang (Malay for superstitious) and might not be happy if the lyrics of some songs consist of words such as “lose” or “throw away”.

“They will feel that their luck is affected – what if they turn angry and get into fights?”

Another performance that could lead to deadly fights (other than bartop dancing). Getais are traditional entertainment for spirits, in the case of RWS, there’s nothing more illusory than beating the house with sheer concentration.More getai here

Pay to lose

From Logic, be gone: Let the dice roll posted 28 feb 2010 from 4Hoteliers website.

As a permanent resident, I have to pay a one-day S$100 entry levy or S$2,000 for an annual pass and I am told they have very sophisticated screening or location-based devices that will be able to tell if you’ve been in there for more than 24 hours or not. If you overstay, you risk a S$1,000 fine.

So I have to pay money to lose money?

Instant gratification

From Can S’pore tackle massive addiction? 15 Dec 2004 ST Forum

You can place more than one million bets in a casino in the time taken to settle one Singapore Sweep lottery ticket bet.

With that short a time-frame to gratification, a casino will cause a massive increase in gambling addiction.

Not according to a recent report in 2010 whereby some professor mentioned that it’s not an increase in the actual numbers afflicted, but increasing awareness of the addiction. Excuses.

Gambler nation

From Gambling is not the answer 8 March 1954 Letters to ST

When will the Government realise that in order to get the money it needs it can do it more successfully by developing good citizens who have the welfare of the country at heart? A nation of gamblers naturally make poor citizens.

No individual can thrive on gambling and no nation can.

Expressing similar thoughts in today’s forum will earn a rebuttal that gaming earnings are used for education and rehabilitation. Which is somewhat akin to tempting the population with cocaine and then using coke money for rehab. No amount of rehab or counselling will help gambling addicts who commit suicide, and for such tragedies, I wonder where the finger pointing will be directed towards. The government pledges to help the gambler, which is like trying retrieving a dropped stone from a deep still pond and forgetting about the ripples. Nobody considers the detrimental impact of gambling on immediate relatives and families, the loan sharks, the medical and financial woes , the emotional trauma, of people involved in gamblers’ lives.


RWS CMI

From The good, the bad and the ugly at Resorts World Opening 17 Feb 2010 posted online Singapore Business Review.

Whilst it’s true I did make the trek to Sentosa, and the almost 400 metre trek from one end of the carpark to the escalator, I did not, in fact, manage to enter the casino halls. The queues were just too long. In fact the double queuing system, where people had to wait upstairs for an hour, only to descend the escalators and find there was another queue of an hour about which they were not pre informed, left many a bad taste in punters mouths.

Now to the foreigners. We spent a good hour in the queue so got to see pretty closely who was going in. Mainly it seemed to be mainland Chinese tourist families here for Chinese new year, who would have made up at least 90 per cent of the foreigner queue. There did seem to be a number of foreign workers also lining up, as well as the occasional angmoh. There were also a lot of Kappa branded polo shirts.

I wonder if this shot would win ST picture of the year. Published on the front page, it smacks of disquieting irony.

Hong Bao Toto

From Whether lottery or casino games, it’s all gambling Todayonline Forum 24 Feb 2010

What baffles me is the level of restriction placed on locals to gamble at the newly opened Resorts World Sentosa casino. It’s a “walk in the park” getting a Toto ticket while going to the casino would set you back by $100 before anything else.

It seems to signal a totally opposing mindset on gambling, when in principle, gambling on a lottery and gambling at a casino are just different kinds of gaming. Why the double standards?

Maybe the premium comes with the perks of dancing showgirls and prostitutes looking to hook up high rollers. Thanks to LianHe Zaobao

 

 

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