Sep 15, 2010
Viet woman fined for soliciting
By Khushwant Singh
A VIETNAMESE woman was fined $700 on Wednesday for soliciting at the Marina Bay Sands casino after she lost money in gambling. It is the first case of soliciting in a casino to come before the courts since the integrated resorts opened early this year. A district court heard that at 1.30am last Saturday, police received a call from security staff of the casino that they had detained a woman for soliciting for the purpose of prostitution.
Duong Linh Thao, 36, admitted to police that she had struck up a conversation with 50-year-old man at about 1am in the casino. She then offered herself for sex for $200. Unknown to her, the man was a security operation manager at the casino and detained her.
In court on Wednesday, a tearful Duong said she regretted her actions. Speaking through the Vietnamese interpreter, she said that she had visited the Marina Bay Sands casino to gamble and ended up committing the offence after losing much of her money. As a first offender, she could have been fined up to $1,000.
