"I am anti-gambling," the 81-year-old Lee said in a televised speech in parliament one day after his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, announced that two casino resorts will be built by 2009 despite domestic opposition.

Lee recalled how his own family had suffered from his father's gambling habit, but said his attitude changed after foreign gaming giants proposed integrated resorts involving an estimated US$3 billion in investment.

"If we turned down their proposals, surely they would go elsewhere in the region," Lee said.

The cabinet was divided by the issue but "the prime minister and the majority in cabinet have made the right decision for Singapore's future and not just the casinos."

Lee noted that even "neat and tidy" Switzerland -- on which Singapore partly modelled its development -- now has casinos.

Lee stepped down as prime minister in 1990 after 31 years in power, during which he imposed strict social controls and rejected proposed casinos. He remains a cabinet adviser with the special title "minister mentor".

"The old model on which I worked was to create a first world city in the third world region - clean, green, efficient, pleasant, healthy and wholesome, safe and secure for everyone," Lee said.

"These virtues are valuable but no longer sufficient. Now we have also to be an economically vibrant but an exciting city to visit, with top-class symphony orchestras, concerts, drama, plays, artists, singers and popular entertainment."

"Singapore has got to reposition itself in this world," Lee said, adding that global investors would "mentally scratch us off" if Singapore rejected the integrated resorts.

Referring to criticism about the social impact of having casinos, he said the price of having them may be high, but "the price of not doing so is even higher."

Lee's old nemesis, veteran opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam, on Monday said there had been no real debate on the casino issue.

"They talk about economic gains... but what I don't think they have really calculated are the social costs," he said.

Chee Soon Juan, who heads the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, said the decision to allow casino operations was "the clearest sign yet that the government has run out of ideas" on propelling the economy.

"Truth be told, without a reform of our political-economic system, no free trade agreement or free-wheeling casino can solve our economic problems," said Chee.

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