On Casinos
Cagayan de Oro City will soon have a casino with the completion of the hotel being built now at the Limketkai area. It is a sign of the progress that our city has had in the past years.
Waterfront hotel and casino will also build a new edifice here if plans will push through. With these establishments, tourism will increase and many will benefit from the side industries like laundry, food supply and catering, taxicab services, tour guides and sale of personal items and many others.
Surely, two casinos would be a big boost to start with. Just like Macau where casinos are a major industry. The government of Macau even paid the airline seats so that we could easily buy a US$.1.00 flight to Macau from Subic. Yes, one dollar only. So how could the airline make a profit from a one dollar air fare? Macau paid for the seats so that thousands of tourists will fly to Macau. And once the tourist is already in Macau, he will spend thousands of pesos in the casinos, in hotels and food, in shopping, in taxi fares, in entertainment and comes home with luggages all full of products bought from Macau. The wallet of the tourist would certainly be empty but his memories of a leisurely vacation will linger for a long time.
And this is what Cagayan de Oro should emulate. Tourism will make a mark in the city and the industries and livelihood of our people will increase. The demand for waiters, chambermaids, cooks, taxi and coach drivers, salesgirls, promogirls, gasboys, security guards, janitors, casino dealers and utility workers would increase a hundredfold.
The income of the city would also increase a thousandfold. We will become the Macau of the Philippines.
But this development I am sure would not augur well for the Catholic church. A lot of arguments, and rallies, will occur among those opposed to gambling. Certainly, gambling is a vice but like all other perceived vices like smoking, drinking, eating, clothes and many other excesses of life, it behooves on anyone if he cannot control it. Self discipline here is the key. I am of the personal opinion that no one should impose his own morality on others. Let every one live his own life in whatever way he wishes. Personal responsibility is one’s individual concern.
So, if you don’t want to gamble then don’t go to the casinos. Stay at home. But to rally for the closure of the casinos is overbearing one’s self on the lives and enjoyment of others. As often said, if you can’t bear the heat then get out of the kitchen.
As in any activity of human beings, excesses are always the problem. So if one enjoys playing the one-armed bandit, the slot machine of the casino, with a limited budget of say a thousand pesos, then leave the guy alone to enjoy his money. If one could afford it then there is really no problem. It is one’s responsibility to gamble or not to gamble.
I see nothing wrong really of casinos per se. They are found all over the world and they brought untold benefits to localities like Las Vegas or Reno in Nevada, USA. People there reap the benefits of no realty taxes because the income from casinos paid for the roads and bridges and schools and hospitals and drainage and public services. Without the casinos, people would be much poorer and would have to pay for the basic government services. These are facts that cannot be denied.
And the moral fiber is another story. If one is really strong in his beliefs of whatever God or Supreme Being he may believe in, then there is really no danger of loosing one’s faith while playing baccarat in the casinos. Religion is not really threatened by the casinos. And prostitution do not necessarily follow where casinos abound. There is no problems of prostitution in Macau or in Hongkong where there are casinos. On the contrary, prostitution, the coldest of all professions, flourish if there is poverty. It is a by-product of poverty.
So the old and over-used argument that casinos will encourage prostitution or thievery or decadence or a slide in morality is wanting in reason or reality. It is, at most, only a religious argument, not an economic one. It is the business of local governments to provide income and business opportunities for its people. And it is the role of the church to provide for the religious guidance of its flock. To each his own. So while the casinos provide money and income for the populace, the vicars of the church also should do their best to reign in the faithful and maintain the congregation.
Thus, the presence of casinos in Cagayan de Oro should not really be threat to the Catholic church. It is even a test of how strong are the faith of the religious leaders and the church members. Thehy could well prove that amidst the temptations of the casinos, the true religious person can live in complete peace.
I am then hoping that Cagayanons will be more mature in their daily grinds and accept that casinos a economy boosters and tourism enhancers.
I am also hoping that, with the casinos around us, the economy will pick up and the people will have more money and prostitution will decline. This is a hope that is realistic. This is a hope that is capable of becoming. And the casinos are a boon than a bane. Of this I am certain.
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