This is to add on to Uyen's post, on gambling and economics.

Negative externalities (Statistics)

• 25% compulsive gamblers attempted suicide
• 672000 college students are addicited
• 35 million teens are addicted

Possible causes:

• Convenience of online gambling
• Teens treat online gambling as a game
• Glamourisation of gambling in movies and television series (E.g Casino Royale)

Government legalising gambling:

• Addiction -> inelastic demand
• If it is still banned, there will be black markets and illegal gambling

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Social Marginal cost = Private Marginal Cost (PMC) + External Marginal Cost (EMC)

Private Marginal Cost:

• Wages for workers
• Land for building casinos and other gambling outlets (E.g Singapore Pools outlets and Singapore Turf Club)
• Law enforcenment units and counselling for addicted gamblers

External Marginal Cost:

• Rise in crime rates by gamblers, affect the safety of other Singaporeans
• Affect investment as investors do not wish to set up factories/ businesses in a place with high crime rates.

Social costs is all of the above mentioned.

=====================================================================

Private Marginal benefit:

• Increase in government revenue from taxation of casinos and Singapore Pools
• More convenient to place bets for gamblers.
• Prevent money lost to other countries when gamblers gamble overseas.

External Marginal benefit:

• More jobs created for other Singaporeans.
• Lower unemployment rate and possible effects due to unemployment.
• Attract tourists to gamble here.
• Attract investment in the gambling industry.

====================================================================

Thus the government legalise gambling when marginal cost is lower then the marginal benefits.

Si Ying =D

Halo, this is some funny cartoon i found on some economic website...

I think the website is quiet interesting with many funny cartoons, videos, quotes and jokes about both economics and politics...Here is the link, hope you guys enjoy:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/

Uyen <3

Gambling and Economics

Demerit goods are goods or services that have been deemed socially undesirable and over-consume through the political process. Their undesirability is usually due to external costs imposed on society when they are consumed. According to this definition, gambling can be considered as a demerit good.

There are several negative externalities which society will have to experience once gambling is made legal. These include:

Social undesirability:
· Less time spent with families, friends and other useful or healthy activities such as sports, leading to the breakdown of many families.
· Loss of trust and ties between individuals and family members if gambling is problem.
· Gambling may lead to debt and crime once gamblers are desperate for money to continue to gamble.
Economic undesirability:
· Large amount of money will be used in:
· Gambling and not in family living, church, charities
· Treatment of addicted gamblers
· Law enforcement needed
· Controlling potential crime

However, Singapore has recently legalized gambling. This is because the government understands the need for more tourist amenities on par with other popular vacation destinations, as Singapore grows in the tourism sector. As casinos are such amenities, they have been given the green light. The sheer rise in economic status has allowed the country to make some terrific investments in the tourist sector and allows visitors a unique look into the country and culture. With two new casinos in Singapore opening in the next few years and glamorous resorts also planned for simultaneous openings, Singapore is sure to become even more of a bright, shining star in Central Asia’s appeal.

In addition, there are also other external benefits:
Social benefits:
· People feel good about employment
· Gaming may be a good entertainment activity
· People find themselves engaged in activity.

Economic benefits:
· More jobs
· May provide higher wages
· Customers drawn from outside the state
· Support of community through charitable gifts/grants.

hello ppl. since our blog is so dead, i shall try to share some interesting stuffs pertaining to economics la.. quite sad or else... haha..

found this while reading mr brown's blog. its really interesting clip on why the american economy so sad now. haha. its on the crisis of credit.

dont worry, its not boring, in fact quite cute. and it puts cheem economics to simpler terms so that normal ppl can understand :D




its done by someone doing his thesis i think:

http://crisisofcredit.com/<-- can click to see.

yay :) hope you guys like it :D hahaha.

<3 junning