Yahoo
A 67-year-old man was told to forfeit his winnings at
Resorts World Sentosa’s
(RWS) casino after finding out his exclusion order from the
National Council on Problem
Gambling (NCPG) had taken effect.
Retired cabby Mr Teo Thiam Kee told The New Paper
(TNP) that he knew his son had applied for an exclusion
order but was not told when the order would take effect so he
continued going to the casino to gamble.
He said, “I’d won about S$200 but they made me cough up the
money before I was allowed to leave. This is unfair. They allowed
me to enter but took away my winnings.”
According to the same paper, Mr Teo and his family appeared
before the committee of assessors at the Family [email protected] Bahru
on Sept 8. The committee hears cases before deciding whether to
grant the exclusion order.
He then went to RWS after the session ended and continued to do
so over the next few days as he was told that it would take some
time for the order to be granted. However, he was stopped on Sept
11 after he scanned his identity card to exit the casino.
Mr Teo returned his S$200 winnings and told TNP, “I
didn’t know I had to forfeit my winnings. If I knew, I wouldn’t
have gone there.”
RWS spokesman, Ms Lee Sin Yee, said the exclusion order for Mr
Teo showed up in the system at the time of his exit and not when he
entered.
Mr Teo claimed that the letter from NCPG informing him that the
exclusion order had been granted was dated Sept 9 and delivered by
hand after he returned home that same day.
It was also reported that the notification of the exclusion
order is sent by courier to the respondent and once it is issued,
the exclusion order will be deemed effective, regardless of whether
the respondent has received it.
According to the
Casino Control Act, an
excluded person or those below the age of 21 must forfeit their
winnings if they are caught in the casinos here. The forfeited
money goes into the Government Consolidated Fund.
