Integrated Resorts

Recently, due o the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Lee has decided to build the Intergrated Resorts to be a tourist attraction for foreigners so as to persuade more people into visiting and spending more time as well as money in Singapore, hence, putting in money into the Singapore economy, decreasing the unemployment and improving the living conditions and quality of Singaporeas' lives. However, due to the presence of casinos in the Intergrated Resorts, there has been much argument over the building of this resorts as it might cause increase of local Singaporean's gambling, thus, putting the people's welfare at risk. However, I think that the advantages of this Intergrated Resorts greatly outweigh its disadvantages.
Firstly, the Intergrated Resort, as said by PM Lee, is not just a gambling attraction, it also comprises of many other facilities for foreigners such as restaurants, hotels, sports and so on. Thus, the success of this Intergrated Resort would lead to approximately 35,000 new jobs created and vacant for the Singapore unemployed. As Singapore has a knowledge-based, small and open economy which was the foundation of our economic success all these years, we should make use of this advantage through earning income by facility and service which is provided by the Intergrated Resorts. Also, in the business of a casino, not much resources is required as the calculations and probabilities has already proven that the casino would gain in the end, its just a matter of how much can they earn and how popular is the casino. This is why tourist spots such as Los Angelas are so successful. Singapore should support the Intergrated Resorts as it wastes low amount of resources for a much greater gain.
Secondly, the image of Singapore in the world have always been conservative and "boring" in the sense that we do not think out of the box and are not daring enough to have radical actions which are beyond the government's "outline" of a Singaporean. This is the main issue why tourism in Singapore is not very successful as the lifestyle and culture here is not as interesting and unique compared to other countries. Since Singapore is a small country limited of land and resources, we could not rely on the Singapore Merlion and Sentosa Island alone for our tourism as we are unlike other countries where people can spend weeks or months travelling around the country just to visit the various tourist sites. In Singapore, 2-3 days is the maximum for a tourist and they would not even bother to come again. Thus, we need to make a big change in the tourism to show that Singapore has a unique tourist spot where you can spend weeks in just to have fun in the casino as well as the facilities in the Intergrated Resorts.
To add on, since the intergrated Resorts is a private project, the failure of this project would not affect the economy at all as the government's fund would not be at risk. Also, there have been regulations such as higher fees for local gamblers and no access for citizens who are receiving government economic support or are in bankruptcy. All this could prevent the cons of the Intergrated Resorts into negatively influencing the habits of Singaopreans and also the economy.
To solve the worries of many Singaporeans, the government should put in more education about gambling and its consequences to the students and also through media so that the locals would be convinced not to gamble.