NTUC: Making it easy to gamble?

Near my house, on the top floor of AMK Hub, there is a very popular leisure outlet and I am not talking about the cinema. It is a NTUC Club or what is actually a very large jackpot room in the middle of a bustling town centre and very accessible to nearby residents.

It is packed with middle aged men and women as well senior citizens whiling away their leisure time at slots machines in the nice cool aircon comfort.

The doors are almost always close and to enter you need to show your member's card to the security personnel. A membership cost no more than  ten dollars a month and they open late into the night to cater to their customers.

Admittedly, most of them are just there for fun and will lose some as well as win some. but invariably, there will be that few who cannot control their impulsions and gamble more than they should. Gambling destroys lives and families, like as if the casinos and hundreds of Singapore Pools outlets are not enough.

NTUC provides cheap food and drinks through their various outlets. In fact, at the NTUC food court at AMK Hub, you can get a hot drink, two eggs and bread for less than $2. It operates a profitable yet reasonably priced supermarket chain.

It is a pillar of social service in Singapore, as an amalgamation of workers' unions and as a responsible business operator. But does it need to generate profit through jackpot machines? Is it not already profitable?

I always thought fruit machines are for country clubs and S League football clubs who cannot survive financially and need these machines to generate revenue. Even that I am somewhat opposed sometimes. Imagine all the fruit machines room in various stadium all around the island. Has the whole island of Singapore become one big casino? It is rather worrying.

Jackpot Room at Hougang Stadium/Hougang United Football Club