Casinos in Singapore ? -- A Qing-dynasty Chinese perspective

The Qing-dynasty traveller 李鐘玨 (Li Zhongjue) published 新嘉坡風土記 ("A Description of Singapore") following his visit to the British crown colony in 1887.  Among Li's many observations and impressions, Spore Sprout found this topical paragraph, which he translates freely below (with apologies to more authoritative renderings that may be extant), for the amusement and reflection of fellow modern-day Singaporeans:

In spite of strict prohibitions imposed by the British, gambling flourishes in Singapore.  There is a casino known as Skymaster Co. that is particularly notorious for touting, and is difficult to shut down on account of its many affiliates.  In years past, some Chinese had petitioned the Executive Council to take a leaf out of the book of the Dutch and relax completely the prohibitions against gambling, but instead impose heavy taxation on the gambling revenues, which could then bring in several hundreds of thousands of yuan in additional tax revenue.  Notwithstanding significant support for the proposal at the time, the Colonial Secretary pronounced that the British could not follow Dutch ways in this matter, as the body politic would be injured thereby.  The Colonial Secretary put aside the proposal and continued to seek ways to root out gambling in Singapore -- it may be said that he too was capable of apprehending the greater good.

Li's text reads in relevant part 當時頗有韙其議者而輔政使司謂英國不能如荷蘭辦法致傷政體屏置不議仍求禁絕之法此亦可謂能識大體者矣。

How much was several "hundreds of thousands of [Qing-dynasty silver] yuan" worth?  By my rough calculation, this would run in the multiples of S$2,000,000 today.   Spore Sprout uses the following ratios: one Qing yuan = one tael of silver = 40g of siver @ US$360 per kilo @ S$1.40 per US$1.  So, as the children say, "millions and millions of dollars."