{"id":175750,"date":"2021-06-07T13:14:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T03:11:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T10:11:03","slug":"fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears First Papua New Guinea Casino Will Aggravate Social Ills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Papua New Guinea\u2019s first casino could magnify social problems in the South Pacific<\/a> nation, according to critics, who also say the proposal lacks transparency.<\/p>\n

\"Papua
PNG has one of the highest crime rates in the world, which reaches its peak in the capital, Port Moseby, pictured. (Image: The Guardian)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Guardian<\/em> reports that PNG\u2019s National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) signed a deal ten days ago with the Paga Hill Development Corporation to bring a casino to capital Port Moresby.<\/p>\n

Backers of the plan say the casino will attract China\u2019s big-spending, globetrotting middle classes<\/a> to the poverty-stricken country, and this will supposedly kickstart economic regeneration and provide jobs.<\/p>\n

The project will cost US$43 million to build and will include a hotel, shopping malls, and cinemas.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

High Crime Rates <\/strong><\/h2>\n

But there are concerns that it could exacerbate social problems. PNG already has one of the highest crime rates in the world, particularly for violent crime, and this has hindered economic growth.<\/p>\n

PNG ranks 136th out of 140 countries for \u201clivability,\u201d as of 2017, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a score indicating that \u201cmost aspects of living are severely restricted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Barker of the Institute of National Affairs in PNG, an independent Think Tank, told The Guardian<\/em> the country does not have the welfare system or legal infrastructure to deal with an increase in problem gambling.<\/p>\n

\n

He noted that the prevalence of slots has many residents of Port Moresby \u201chooked and squandering their limited incomes in the hope of many a win, but instead leaving themselves in increasing debt and often failing to feed their facilities, breaking their families, causing people to lose their jobs and livelihood.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Barker suggested casinos would be a \u201chigher level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slot Problem<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Slot machines arrived in PNG in 1994. At the time, there was already a thriving gambling scene based on illegal card and dart games. These were pushed deeper underground as the new legal slots<\/a> parlors took center stage.<\/p>\n

But they have often kept their doors shut to the truly impoverished, preferring to target customers with money, according to Dr Anthony Pickles of the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University.<\/p>\n

It helped that legislators deliberately established a high minimum bet for the machines \u2013 starting at around $20.<\/p>\n

But Barker does not believe the poor will be kept out the proposed casino.<\/p>\n

PNG certainly doesn\u2019t have the laws, penalties, governance, education, or welfare capacity that Australia has, and it has serious law and order problems already. It certainly shouldn\u2019t want to worsen the situation, and having a major casino will certainly worsen the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paga CEO George Hallit said the casino would directly and indirectly create thousands of jobs and boost tourism to the region.<\/p>\n

According to the US State Department, Port Moresby suffers from high unemployment, with up to half of the population living in squatter settlements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Papua New Guinea\u2019s first casino could magnify social problems in the South Pacific nation, according to critics, who also say the proposal lacks transparency. The Guardian reports that PNG\u2019s National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) signed a deal ten days ago with the Paga Hill Development Corporation to bring a casino to capital Port Moresby. Backers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":175751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFears First Papua New Guinea Casino Will Aggravate Social Ills<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Papua New Guinea casino proposal causes alarm among some for nation struggling with poverty and crime in the high-crime rate country.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fears First Papua New Guinea Casino Will Aggravate Social Ills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Papua New Guinea casino proposal causes alarm among some for nation struggling with poverty and crime in the high-crime rate country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-07T20:14:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-19T10:11:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Port-Morseby.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/\",\"name\":\"Fears First Papua New Guinea Casino Will Aggravate Social Ills\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Port-Morseby.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-07T20:14:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-19T10:11:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Papua New Guinea casino proposal causes alarm among some for nation struggling with poverty and crime in the high-crime rate country.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fears-first-papua-new-guinea-casino-will-aggravate-social-ills\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Port-Morseby.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Port-Morseby.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"PNG has one of the highest crime rates in the world, which reaches its peak in the capital, Port Moseby. 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