SINGAPORE : Once the second biggest casino gambler in the world,
he is serving 42 years in jail for cheating banks of $117.1 million
to feed his habit.
Chia Teck Leng, now aged 45, is against having a casino in
Singapore but says if there is to be one, Singapore needs to at
least tame it.
He wrote a paper "Taming the Casino Dragon" while in prison to
'share his experience' and 'lessons learnt'.
The Home Affairs Ministry is releasing it now - as part of the
public education on the casino debate.
What is the fuss about a criminal's account?
It was the largest case of cheating involving a Singaporean - the
former finance manager of Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) Pte
Ltd - ended up in jail because he was 'hooked' on gambling.
He was given time off from prison work to write this 13-page paper
- and took about five months till December.
It is almost academic in tone - informative - introducing words
like 'whale' to mean the big players and 'house advantage' for the
odds in favour of the casino in the long-term.
Self-deprecating at times - saying "like an inexperienced teenager
succumbing to the lure of a newly discovered vice, I was soon
hooked".
And at others, prescriptive. In fact, without irony, he recommends
over 10 'safeguards' to protect Singaporeans from the ill-effects
of casino gambling.
Chia spoke about being accosted by "alluringly colourful lights,
attractive croupiers and the magical promise of easy money."
The turning point came when he lost three-quarters of a million
dollars which he had painstakingly saved. To recoup losses, Chia
sought bigger bets.
He travelled to exclusive casinos in Australia and London where he
placed million-dollar bets.
Besides that, Chia gives an insight into just how lucrative the
casino trade is, giving the example of just how much operators make
in one game - Baccarat.
His plain message was the casino always wins. - CNA /de