No objection from Mark and Jo, who are not gamblers, not even in the amateur sense. They just needed a change from the usual itinerary of Filipino restaurants featuring folk dancers, the expected shopping trips to Greenhills and Divisoria, the predictable out-of-town drive to Tagaytay.

The two Californians have been to the glitziest casinos in Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City. On their latest visit to the old hometown, Quezon City, they were excited to see Manila’s newest casino at the Hyatt — "not to gamble, just to look and kibitz."

"Gamble" is not a politically correct word anymore, and Pagcor’s job at the moment is to change its image by changing the sound of the word. Gaming, not gambling.

And when prim and proper Singapore is showing the world that it’s game! to take on the betting industry by lifting an age-old ban on casinos and moving full steam ahead to build a US billion casino complex to attract tourists (and keep them from Macau and Malaysia), are we going to watch with arms folded across the chest and not feel threatened?

The paradox is that as we have a tiny minority of antigambling crusaders who terrorize the government, we also have a large pool of skilled card dealers who need our moral support. The paradox is that as Pagcor keeps training and hiring them, they keep leaving for greener tables abroad.

But if you ask them, they would rather work here than be separated from their families. Unlike the nurses and teachers who leave every day in big numbers, casino workers suffer from some kind of social stigma, mostly coming from the holier-than-thou.

All that should change soon. We will wait for Singapore to show them that gaming is a positive development in tourism economics, we will wait for the Manila-initiated Euro-Asian Cooperation on Gaming to "put the gaming industry in its rightful place with entertainment and tourism."