Legalized gambling vies for Singapore stakes
Legalized gambling vies for Singapore stakes
By Lee Chyen Yee
SINGAPORE (Reuters): Gambling in Singapore will take one more step out of the seamy underground in April, as the island republic becomes the first country in Asia to legalize soccer betting.
When the Singapore S-league kicks off, soccer will join the legal gambling club alongside horseracing, and number-guessing games 4-D and Toto.
"We hope the legalization of soccer betting will combat illegal bookies and wipe out 'kelong' (Malay for 'match- fixing')," said Joe Dorai, head of corporate communications at Singapore Pools. "If you can't fight them (gamblers), join them."
Many punters agree.
"In society, there is a need to satisfy the human nature -- prostitution for lust and gambling for greed," said a middle-aged man while queuing up to try his luck at Toto.
Soon soccer fans will be able to combine their gambling instincts with their love for the unpredictable ball game.
With Singapore Pools' Score betting games, punters pick a winner or a draw, or predict the total number of goals scored.
With soccer betting seeing the light of day, Singapore Pools hopes to wipe out match-rigging, which has marred the game in recent years.
Five years ago, a major bribery scandal emerged when the Singapore police arrested a striker and a referee for fixing six matches in the 16-team Malaysian league. The scandal led to the banning of a fifth of the league's players and the withdrawal of Singapore from the league.
"In the soccer match live telecast between Manchester United and Liverpool in January, about S$800,000 to S$1 million (US$470,000 to $580,000) exchanged hands at coffee shops," Dorai said.
Stakes were higher at last year's World Cup. Reports said Singaporeans bet S$50 million with some bets placed abroad.
"You might as well legalize soccer betting and let the money stay in Singapore," Dorai said.
Dorai said the money from legalized betting would be channeled back to boost the national standard of the game.
The Singaporean passion for gambling has a long track record. A fast disappearing past-time, 'chapjikee' is played by housewives who put their extra grocery dollars on the line.
Through a bookie, they pick a pair of numbers in a 12-by-12 matrix and pray for a windfall.
Superstition fuels the game. Punters jostle to get a glimpse of car number plates after fatal accidents or bet on dates of fateful disasters, which are considered good luck.
Singapore legalized 4-D and Toto in 1968 in an attempt to stamp out chapjikee.
In 4-D, punters pick four numbers between 0000 and 9999 and in Toto they choose six numbers from one to 42. If the numbers match the draws by Singapore Pools, they win.
Against a backdrop of lush greenery at the Singapore Turf Club, horseracing lures tens of thousands of Singaporeans every weekend.
The punters, mostly men, light their cigarettes, thumb through their 'majing' ('horse scriptures' in Chinese) and scream themselves hoarse for one-minute thrills as their chosen steeds gallop past the winning post.
Despite the Asian economic turmoil, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore collected betting duties of S$1.06 billion from the Turf Club and Singapore Pools in fiscal 1998 compared to the previous year's S$950.7 million.
While opponents of legal gambling say it encourages vice, proponents argue that money gambled can be put to good use. The Singapore Turf Club donates millions of dollars to charity each year and Singapore Pools is pumping money into a new arts center.
Still, legalization may not weed out illegal gambling. "That's because of the discounts provided by the illegal bookmakers," Yap Kiang Keong, head of gambling suppression at the CID (criminal investigation department).
In 1998, Yap's department arrested 3,888 people -- mostly unemployed middle-aged men who operate in public housing estates -- for illegal gambling, 529 more than in 1997.
At the turf club, punters can either line up at the club's booth to place a S$5 bet or furtively shove S$4.10 into a bookie's hands between horse races for a betting ticket.
"Somehow, the backstreet bookies will still manage to survive," Dorai said.