- Hello everybody, welcome back to the Social Pants Experiment. Today, I want to talk about my run-in with casino security in Singapore. (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) So our story begins on the evening myself and friends went to the Marina Bay Sands. You may remember the vlog where we went to the top and had drinks at the bar. Afterwards, we headed to the casino. Now, to set this up properly, you need to understand that Singapore is a city-state known for it's strict rules.
Anthony Bourdain referred to it as Disney Land with a death penalty, and this was referenced to a city-state where prostitution and gambling is legal, but there is zero tolerance for guns or drugs. So a little history. In 2010, Singapore lifted a decades-old ban on gambling and opened two amazing casinos: the Malaysian-own, Resorts World Sentosa, and the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel https://oncasinogames.com/canada/roulette/. Singapore is still a city of rules, however. Their are rules that apply that are designed to reduce addiction and crime thought to surround gambling. For instance, permanent residents of Singapore must pay 100 dollars for a 24 hour pass, just to enter the casino. Foreigners, like me, must have a passport and go through, what feels like, tighter security than entering the country. Family members can have you black-listed at the casino if they feel like you're spending too much time there. Casino operators cannot advertise anywhere locally in Singapore. So, back to our story. We enter the casino through security, cash in hand, ready to have a little bit of fun. Before we got started I thought I would take the opportunity to stroll around this amazing place and get a little B-roll with my GoPro. After all, like so many things in Singapore, the architecture and design of this casino is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Things were going pretty well, I thought, and then I was approached by casino security. You can imagine how nervous I suddenly became. (guitar riff) Well I ain't superstitious, But a black cat crossed my trail - Apparently, they don't like you filming in the casino. So the way it was explained to me is, this is mainly because they don't want people to be identified on camera, on video, on social media who are at the casino gambling. This could be for various reasons, whether they're local Singaporians, or specifically VIP's, who are in town gambling and don't necessarily want their whereabouts known. Apparently, I slipped up when I was trying to film my friends playing and did not realize, a lot of people were in the frame and really concerned about my camera. Now again, like everything else in Singapore, security was extremely nice, overly friendly, and very accommodating. But, they did go through my camera and have me delete all the footage from the casino. Which I was more than happy to do by the way, and not just because I feared a caning, but it was the right thing to do. All things considered, I felt great about the transaction. I honestly don't recall if there were any signs anywhere that said filming is prohibited. There probably was I just didn't see them. In Vegas for instance, nobody really cares. But make no mistake about it, this is not Las Vegas. So after that I proceeded to spend a couple hours at the blackjack table and ended up walking away with an extra 200 dollars Singapore in my pocket. So in the end, another successful trip to the casino in Singapore. I hope you enjoyed this story, Ill see you tomorrow. (blues-rock music)
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December 2018
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