Bosses send foreign workers to gamble

[youallhumsup]

Bosses send foreign workers to gamble

Workers share in casino winnings, but if they lose too much, they pay

Published on Nov 4, 2011



The bosses claim they are not flouting any rules by sending their workers to gamble at the casino. The men fake illness and get a medical certificate to cover their absence from their workplace. But migrant rights activists and counsellors condemned the employers' action. -- ST FILE PHOTO

By Elizabeth Soh

A hard day's work for Bangladeshi construction worker Salim used to mean toiling under the burning sun.

But nowadays, at least once a week, he finds himself assigned to a very different kind of 'job' - playing the jackpot machines in the cool air-conditioned comfort of Resorts World Sentosa.

The 29-year-old is one of a number of foreign employees being sent to the casino to gamble on behalf of their employers to feed their own habit, a Straits Times investigation has found.

Five bosses - some with exclusion orders against them - told The Straits Times that they have been handing workers cash, notebooks and mobile phones, then dispatching them to the casino.

They claimed to know several other employers doing the same thing.

The 'proxy gamblers', dressed mostly in company polo T-shirts and jeans, get a cut of the winnings, but if they lose too much, their pay is docked.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C0f2m0Q2J88?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

​

 

[youallhumsup]

Foreign workers made to gamble by bosses
inSing.com Editor
inSing.com

<cite style="display: block; font-style: normal; font-size: 10px; margin-top: 4px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px; ">Errant employers send their workers to gamble in casinos here on their behalf.</cite>
Some foreign construction workers here are being sent to casinos to gamble on behalf of their bosses.

According to the Straits Times, five bosses divulged that they have been handing workers cash, notebooks and mobile phones, then sending them off to the casino.

They claimed to know several other employers doing the same thing. The bosses, some with exclusion orders against them, claimed to know several other employers doing the same.

The 'proxy gamblers' get a cut of the winnings, but if they lose too much, their pay is cut.

The Straits Times reported that this arrangement allows the bosses who are barred a way to feed their habit. Some say it is a way to maximise their chances of winning at the slot machines or roulette tables.

Five workers the newspaper spoke to said they were not forced to do it, and were clearly enjoying themselves.

Two workers the Straits Times found gambling at Resorts World Sentosa had been given strict orders to write down every bet they made, and their losses and wins.

They get 10 per cent of anything they win, but if they lose more than $500, the entire loss is cut from their pay.

The employers each send two workers at around 10am. They do not leave until their employers pick them up at around 10pm, or sometimes as late as midnight.

Migrant rights activists have condemned the employers' actions.

Mr John Gee told the Straits Times, “It's very wrong. The men are willing to work at the jobs they were hired for and they should be able to do that work and get paid for it, not used for anything else.”

The president of migrant workers' rights group Transient Workers Count Too added,

“They have no choice but to do as their bosses say and they come away worse off. It is illegal deployment and it is unethical.”

The bosses are putting their workers at risk of becoming gambling addicts says some gambling counsellors.