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Yoshitsune Minamoto
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Kopi-O code at coffeeshops to avoid arrest <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">
By Maureen Koh
PURISTS will mourn if their favourite team is kicked out of the finals. But the odds are, there is another breed who will shed even more tears – the punters. Those laughing all the way to the banks are likely to be the illegal bookies – if they manage to elude the long arm of the law.
Punters rarely come out ahead of the bookies. And that's why the bookies are gearing up to lure those foolish enough to be hooked. Football punters are known to wager on anything – from which country will win to who scores the first goal, or who has the winning coin toss to the total number of cards (yellow and red) flashed.
To feed this feverish interest, bookies not only take bets online and via SMS, they are also offering"WAP betting"on smartphones. One website's tagline reads: Turn your smartphone into your personal betting office. But they are not forsaking their favourite betting ground: The coffeeshops.
Said one bookie: "This year, we're setting up kopitiam betting booths – especially because SingTel and StarHub (the two cable- TV providers) are charging too much for subscriptions. "Many fans would rather nurse a cup of kopi and cheer with a group of people." Some syndicates claim to have recruited a network of "kopi-boys" (workers employed by the coffeeshops) to be their runners.
These "kopi-boys" have been trained to talk in "communication codes" to avoid detection, claimed some bookies chanced upon by The New Paper on Sunday. "It's easy," he said, and reeled off a string of betting terms. "Like 'kopi' means to 'put ball', 'teh' is 'eat ball'. Milo (also known as 'tak-kiu') is 'jalan odds'. "So 'kopi o' means 'level ball', 'kopi bua sio leng' is put 'half-ball' and 'kopi kao' is 'put one'."
Why bother? Because there's big money at stake. Some $1.3 billion is estimated to have changed hands in Malaysia and Singapore during the last World Cup in 2006. An online opinion poll conducted by market research company TNS that year revealed that 80 per cent of Singapore's online population was keen on the World Cup, with over half expected to bet on at least one game.
Forty per cent of respondents in China, 41 per cent in South Korea and 37 per cent in Hong Kong also said they planned to bet on matches. Some regular punters who bet illegally on certain kinds of football games, admitted taking the risk despite being aware of the stiff penalty. People who punt with illegal bookies face a maximum fine of $5,000, or a jail term of up to six months.
Yet they risk it for what they claim to be better odds, better payouts, more variety of bets and betting on credit. An insurance agent who claimed to have set aside $6,000 for this year's finals, said: "When you bet legally, the winnings are insignificant. Bookies offer better odds."
One punter, who admitted that he was "not really into the actual matches", said: "If I bet on which team scores the first goal, the second it happens, I can go to sleep." Another regular punter said: "I can even bet on a star player and the number of goals he scores in the match." Such creative betting is not offered by Singapore Pools – the only legal sports bookmaker here.
A bookie, who claimed that this will be the third World Cup season he will "manage", said: "My towkay (boss) got betting station (which is) manned by operators. "But it's only for regulars – they're given a user code and password. All of them have already opened their accounts and placed their deposits at half their betting credit."
Said the bookie: "Like that, even if the player runs, it's not so 'painful' for us." He claimed that most of the master agents now have their website servers hosted outside Singapore. Said the bookie: "In the last World Cup, police even blocked the Internet connection and many of our customers could not place their bets."
Then, the police cyberspace blitz spiked bids by punters who placed bets. Also, without the Internet, bookies and runners could not access the latest odds and update the bets systematically. Convicted bookmakers face fines ranging from $20,000 to $200,000 and a maximum jail term of five years.
Singapore Pools has launched the new PoolzConnect World Cup Account, where account holders with bets of $500 or more during the World Cup will also receive a rebate, capped at $50, to "help our customers defray the cost of their telco subscription to the World Cup telecast".
It hopes that this service will stop punters from turning to illegal bookies during the traditional "betting season". Existing subscribers of StarHub cable TV and SingTel's mioTV, who signed up before May 31, paid $70.62 ($66 plus GST). The fee now is $94.16 ($88 plus GST).
Special bet types
A Singapore Pools spokesman said that special bet types will be available, such as which team – of the 12 offered for the bets – will be eliminated at the various stages of the competition. Singapore Pools will also introduce special bet types as the tournament progresses. All 64 matches will be telecast live at SportsBuzz@Paradiz, SportsBuzz@Kranji and LiveWire (Resorts World Sentosa).
Mr Wang Guoxiong, 43, a swimming instructor, said he was likely to place his bets with Singapore Pools. He usually spends about $1,000 during each football betting season. Mr Wang said: "I'm not a heavy bettor, so the odds payout don't really matter. "For me, it's more about the game itself than the gamble."
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