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Monday, Nov 12, 2012
SINGAPORE - In today's illegal gambling dens, you will not see punters riffling chips or shuffling cards.
Instead, regardless whether the game is baccarat or jackpot, illegal gambling has gone high-tech. Bets are placed by keyboard and mouse over the Internet, in seedy rooms lit by the glow of LCD screens that look more like local area network, or LAN, shops than unlicensed casinos.
The Straits Times learnt this when it accompanied police on a raid of such a gambling house, located in a second-floor shophouse in Guillemard Road, above a turtle soup restaurant.
When officers from Bedok Police Division forced their way in at about 9pm on Thursday, three punters were playing virtual slots on computers. There were 12 terminals in the air-conditioned unit, including one by the door, controlled by an operator.
On computer windows titled Casino, gamblers were clicking away at jackpot games with titles like Geisha Story, Lotto Madness and Football Rules, each with themed graphics.
The bets were in Malaysian ringgit, and the pot size - the money a punter can win if he lucks out with the best combination - was constantly changing but topping RM100,000 (S$40,045). Blinking text stated: "You are playing for real money."
The five-hour bust led to the arrest of six suspects - the gamblers, the operator, a shaven-headed teen, and his two friends. The computers were seized together with $2,333 in cash.
The Straits Times understands illegal gambling dens began the shift to computers in 2007, away from table-based games or bulky, arcade-style machines.
Of the six raids on gambling houses publicised by the police in July and September, five had computers that were seized. In August, 10 of 12 such busts saw computers seized.
Such dens have been found in a range of places, from condominiums to shophouses.
LCD screens and desktop towers look like office equipment, are cheap to build and easy to move. They also do not arouse the suspicions of neighbours, unlike gaming tables and purpose-built gaming machines.
Tell-tale signs include CCTV cameras at the entrance and other security measures like magnetic doors and PIN systems. Another giveaway is the lack of a shop sign.
The dens operate for up to half a year before they close and move on. Evidence shows they are run by syndicates in the region.
The syndicates also show some degree of technical sophistication.
At the punter's end, the casino programme automatically logs off if a user is idle for more than a few minutes. The operator can monitor, take control and even shut down each station from his desk.
A router and a network switch, bought off the shelf, conduct all Internet traffic through the operator's PC, which uses an online account to top up each gaming station's credits.
Within 10 minutes of the raid, the operator account was frozen and inaccessible to outside users.
Ironically, though the Internet allows punters to gamble in the anonymity of their homes, many prefer gambling dens, where they can buy credits with cash, rather than go online, where they have to reveal sensitive credit card information that could be stolen.
A middle-aged woman outside the raided unit, who gave her name as Madam Lin, said the unit belonged to her mother, and that the family had been renting it out for years. The current tenant, which her agent said was a carpet company, had moved in a few months ago.
"We got a call from one of the neighbours that there were police so I came here," she said in Mandarin. "I'm worried, I don't know what is going to happen."
