KUALA LUMPUR: The Singapore government has said it will add some 15,000 citizens and permanent residents, including low-income and unemployed people, to the list of those banned from entering the country's two casinos. The officials cited an effort to reduce the social impact of gambling problems on the impoverished in the city-state. The new regulations are to be established on July 1 and include residents who receive financial aid from the government, the ministry of community development, youth and sports said in a statement Thursday evening. Another 3,000 public-housing residents will also be barred from entering the casinos as they are recipients of subsidized rentals. “We want to protect the financially vulnerable who can ill afford casino gambling,” acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing said in the statement, citing a 2011 official survey that showed an increasing proportion of low-income gamblers in Singapore playing with large sums. These new casino exclusions add to the 28,000 people already barred on government orders from Singapore's casinos—Genting Singapore PLC's Resorts World Sentosa and Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s Marina Bay Sands.
