UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Las Vegas in Singapore: Casinos and the Taming of Vice Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5fd9x8cg Author Lee, Kah-Wee Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Las Vegas in Singapore: Casinos and the Taming of Vice By Kah-Wee Lee A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Architecture and the Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Nezar AlSayyad, Chair Professor C. Greig Crysler Professor Andrew M. Shanken Professor Aihwa Ong Fall 2012 Las Vegas in Singapore: Casinos and the Taming of Vice ©2012 Kah-Wee Lee 1 Abstract Las Vegas in Singapore: Casinos and the Taming of Vice by Kah-Wee Lee Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Berkeley Professor Nezar AlSayyad, Chair This dissertation investigates the historical formation of the modern casino as a “dividing practice” that cuts society along moral, legal and economic lines. It analyzes specific episodes in Singapore’s and Las Vegas’ histories when the moral problem of vice was transformed into a series of practical interventions devised by lawyers, detectives, architects and bureaucrats to criminalize and legalize gambling. Spatial containment and aesthetic form are key considerations and techniques in these schemes. I show how such schemes revolve around the complex management of the political costs and practical limits of changing the moral-legal status of gambling, whether it is to criminalize a popular form of illegality or to legalize an activity that threatens the normative order of society. The rise of the modern casino as a spatially bounded and concentrated form of gambling that is seamless with corporate management practices and popular culture is an indication of how far such costs and limits have been masked and stretched. The dissertation proceeds by examining three historical projects telescoped through the wider lenses of colonialism (Singapore, 1880-1920), nationalism (Singapore, 1950-1980) and corporatization (Las Vegas, 1950-1990). The colonial project shows how a line was drawn between vice and crime through the political technology of the “Common Gaming House”. By attaching criminality to the built environment and decoding the practices of the native gamblers through ethnographic work, colonial administrators devised a technique to criminalize selectively without sparing anyone. The nationalist project highlights the paradox between the intensified criminalization of vice and the heroism of nation-building. Continuing the analysis of juridical reasoning and police work, this chapter shows how crime was produced by changing the spatial registers of crime within the political technology of the Common Gaming House. At the same time, this attack on the people was ameliorated through the public performance of police work, as well as the sanitized rituals of the national lottery draw and its architectural forms. The chapter on corporate Las Vegas examines the formation of the dominant casino model today. By tracing the transformation of the industry brought about by the confluence of digital technology, corporate management techniques and changing market conditions, I argue that the modern casino form as devised in Las Vegas effectively defeated the geographical injunctions designed to separate gambling from other spheres of life. In this process, casino design was abstracted into a set of “scientific” principles whose claims of objectivity are often motivated by the industry’s lust for profitability and respectability. 2 The final chapter synthesizes and reflects on these histories by showing how the Las Vegas model was transformed in order to blend into the spatial-aesthetic order of Singapore’s political and urban landscape. It analyzes state discourses, bureaucratic culture and planning practices in order to show how the components of the Las Vegas model were dismantled and reassembled to produce the “Integrated Resort” that the government wanted. I argue that the architecture hides the casino in plain sight and blends into the urban vision of Marina Bay. The Integrated Resort is a sanitized model that facilitates a new scale of expansion and legitimacy for a globalized casino industry. i CONTENTS Acknowledgments iii List of figures, tables and plans v Abbreviations vii INTRODUCTION 1 Gambling, space and modernity 5 Science, technology and industry 10 Formulating an approach 13 Plan of Dissertation 16 CHAPTER 1 21 Criminalizing Vice: The “Common Gaming House” in colonial Singapore World pictures 23 Moral reform and the space of tolerated illegalities 29 The “Common Gaming House” 32 Police work and the disciplining of law 37 Internal surveillance: reforming the police 41 External surveillance: patrols, detectives and fingerprints 45 Anthropological knowledge as police work 50 A criminal milieu 56 CHAPTER 2 58 Aestheticizing Vice: Nationalism and its embarrassments Gambling as social practice and livelihood 61 Interlocking discourses: crime, environment and human nature 66 Producing crime through the “Common Gaming House” 75 Space-crime compression 79 Aestheticizing vice and crime 86 The performance of state lotteries 90 A scene today 101 CHAPTER 3 103 Maximizing Profits: The Las Vegas model Dematerialization and the psychology of large numbers 108 From mechanics to professionals: a “wealth of information” 111 David Kranes and the birth of the “casino designer” 116 Architectural plans and the “science” of casino design 120 Emerging divides: The Xanadu Report 130 Connections to the present 139 ii CHAPTER 4 144 Las Vegas in Singapore Past and present 146 The planning bureaucracy 154 The best and the right 165 Petty politics 175 The Integrated Resort and the art of blending 180 CONCLUSION 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 iii Acknowledgements This dissertation was written in bouts of isolation, frustration and inspiration. The sum is joy. I am grateful to my dissertation advisors who guided and pushed me in this intellectual journey: Professors Nezar AlSayyad, C. Greig Crysler, Aihwa Ong and Andrew M. Shanken. They were generous with their knowledge, sharp with their criticisms and caring with their words. I also learned tremendously from Professors Teresa Caldeira, James Holston, Paul Rabinow and Ananya Roy. The combined weight of anthropologists left an indelible imprint on me and this dissertation. My study at Berkeley is supported by the Overseas Graduate Scholarship from the National University of Singapore and the Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate Scholarship. I am grateful for the University of California Pacific-Rim Advanced Graduate Research Fellowship which supported my fieldwork in 2010. A research fellowship from the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, gave me the opportunity to work at its archives. Finally, the Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship supported me while I was writing the dissertation. During my writing period, I remember therapeutic sessions with my colleagues in the Global Metropolitan Studies group: Saima Akhtar, Jia-ching Chen, Debbie Cheng, Mona Damluji, Momen El-Husseiny, Joseph Godlewski, Michael Gonzales, Muna Guvenc, Elena Ion, Alex Tarr, and Professor Richard Walker. At another writing group, Pietro Calogero, Ria Hutabarat, Elena Ion and Yael Perez broadened my appreciation of different writing styles and research topics over many Friday mornings. I recall many social activities and intellectual discussions that made life at Berkeley unforgettable: Catherine Covey, Cecilia Chu, Karthikeya Date, Zara Kadkani, Shweta Ranpura, Avigail Sachs and Pat Seeumpornroj, to name only a few. Stefan Al is my forebear in casino research at Berkeley. From a distance, Natasha Schüll was helpful with her rich ethnographic experience in machine gambling. Their works gave me insights when I was at the archives in Las Vegas. At Las Vegas, the staff and archivists at the Center for Gaming Research were a joy to work with. The organization of the Special Collection showed me that archivists are the unseen heroes of history-in-making. David Schwartz, Director of the Center, was tireless, dedicated and focused. Sukim Chung showed me around the archives. She also brought me into her life-world and showed me what it is like to be a resident rather than a tourist in Las Vegas. My colleagues at the National University of Singapore were understanding and supportive of my work. Chye-Kiang Heng, Yunn-Chii Wong, Bobby Wong and Johannes Widodo eased my transition into academia. Fellow Berkeleyans, Chee-Kien Lai and Jiat-Hwee Chang, were always encouraging and insightful. They showed me that institutions can be just a bunch of caring people. During my fieldwork in Macau, Ching-Tung Lim arranged for me to stay at an apartment in Zhuhai. His hospitality and cheerfulness helped me cope with one of the most depressing moments of my fieldwork. At the Macau Central library, Luis Lopez went out of his way to help me navigate through Chinese and Portuguese texts. Francisco Vizieu Pinheiro was my source of information about the planning scene in Macau – he never hesitated to answer my questions and iv link me up with important informants. Unfortunately, I am not able to discuss Macau in much detail in this dissertation. I reserve their contributions for another project. Many of my informants in