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Zangief
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Dec 29, 2010
Soccer bookie jailed, fined for taking bets during World Cup
By Khushwant Singh
IT WAS a busy time in June 2010 for Lai Theng Hooi with the World Cup kicking off in South Africa and football club matches in Europe, South America and Japan.
The soccer bookie's luck ran out before the World Cup came to a close on July 11.
The 30-year-old was arrested accepting bets via phones in a flat in Farrer Park Road on June 28 and on Wednesday, he was sentenced to a total of 11/2 years in jail and fined $425,000 by a district court.
He had pleaded guilty to eight charges of acting as a bookmaker. The judge took 14 similar charges into consideration when passing sentence.
All the offences were committed from June 11 to June 28 and the total amount of wagers accepted by Lai added up to $202,900.
When he was nabbed, police found Lai manning three computers and four mobile phones and looking after $129,600 in cash in the flat.
Investigations then revealed that sometime in 2007, Lai had met a Malaysian by the name of Ah Liang in a pub in Johor Baru.
He was a bookmaker for an illegal soccer betting syndicate based in Malaysia and Lai started placing bets with him.
Within a year, the Singaporean had chalked up big losses which he was unable to pay.
He then went to work for the betting syndicate collecting lost wagers, paying out winnings, and recruiting new punters here.
His efforts earned him a commission of 0.5 to one per cent of the wagers placed with him, and he told investigators that he had earned about $30,000 to $35,000 so far.
