STATE LOTTERY DISCOURSE: 1945-1968

Abstract

The founding of Singapore Pools on 23 May 1968 was the outcome of a longstanding state lottery debate from 1945-1968 towards Singapore’s rampant gambling problem since colonial rule. Historical works on Singapore’s state lottery largely focused on the state’s role in implementing the lottery policy, and its resultant impact on the everyday lives of Singaporeans. The narrative is largely approached by juxtaposing the state’s “altruistic” repurposing of lottery revenue against the evils of lottery rackets. By taking a step back to focus on the longer term debates and policy formulation process, this thesis hopes to present the state lottery debate from 1945-1968 to complement the existing literature. While all three of the different political administrations that governed Singapore made proposals for a state lottery, only the People’s Action Party government managed to successfully implement one. This thesis hopes to move away from the almost exclusively state-centered narrative focused on post 1968 by bringing uncovering the agency of lesser known assemblymen and members of the public who enriching the discussion. This thesis also argues that in terms of state policy formulation, immediate political circumstances were the most important in influencing the state’s decisions towards regulating lottery gambling, empowering much repeated arguments and enabling the PAP administration to achieve a breakthrough in 1968. Through an analysis of Singapore Parliament records (Hansard) and newspaper articles from the Straits Times, this thesis will study both the effort of the lesser known assemblymen within the government and the wider public discussions by the English speaking community in contributing to the state lottery debate. I will be focusing on the undertone and motivations that drove their opinions, observing how the arguments changed over time and document that were the pertinent wider political circumstances during each debate that might have influenced the opinions provided by each contributor.