Woa, "pau chia" one ah? (sure to win?)

You can say that I'm shocked.

On my weekly trip to the 4-D outlet this week, I picked up this little flyer by the counter.



Entitled "Winning Times", the brochure is an advertisement by the Singapore Pools (SP) to either get more Singaporeans and foreigners alike to gamble, or to get Singaporeans and foreigners alike to gamble more. Either way, it just doesn't sound very right to me.

Inside the flyer are stories of luck and success concerning four individuals. It's the kind of stuff that only dreams are made of. These characters have one thing in common - all of them have won money in 4-D, Toto or the Singapore Sweep. And all of them, like most fairy tales, lived happily ever after. My friends, please meet:

1. The Incurable Romantic. A man in his forties who looks forward to nothing more than a quiet dinner with his wife. Though he hardly placed any bet on Toto, he decided to do so on the spur of the moment once while having a meal with his wife at Bishan. He won the Toto Hongbao Draw and surprised his wife with a house.

2. The Blue-collared Worker. Having toiled most of his life, a man in his late 50s has been thinking of retirement. But he had little savings and had a wife to support. To add to his woes, his only means of transport, a bicycle, broke down. While wheeling his bicycle to a shop for repair, he chanced upon an SP outlet and decided to try his luck with the Toto Hongbao Draw. Needless to say, he won, bought a roof over his head with the money with spare money left for his retirement.

3. The Loving Father. A man in his early fifties has a medical condition that needs attention. But he decided to use his money for his son's tertiary education, knowing full well the importance of education, of which he had very little. While walking pass a SP outlet one festive season, he decided to try his luck on a $28 Prosperity Pack. And as luck would have it, the man won and was able to send his son for overseas education, with money enough for him to go for his medical procedure.

4. The Mother who knows best. A lady in her late 60s thought that she might have won the 2N2 (??) Special Prize when she checked the teletext. She did a double take and when she was very sure about her winning, she immediately called her daughter who was working overseas. Knowing that their mum's eyesight was failing, the daughter called her brother to help to confirm if the woman has really won. It turned out that she really did win. And when the cheque was finally presented to her, she proclaimed to her children, "Mother knows best!"

Well, don't you just wish that you're in THEIR shoe? I don't know about you, but I do find the advertisement by SP a tad irresponsible and of bad taste. Ok, I suppose SP, being a profit-making organisation, has a duty to watch its bottom line. But the rosy and happy picture painted by SP in the flyer is extremely loop-sided. If we were to believe the stories portrayed in the flyer, most Singaporeans who bought 4-D would have become millionaires. Of course, we know nothing is further from the truth. What about those who are so mired in debt because of 4-D and Toto that they break up their families and their homes? What about those who are driven to suicide?

I also wonder about the need for the advertisement, considering that we Singaporeans are already quite well-known for having made buying 4-D one of our national hobbies. Is it a case of "money no enough" for the SP? Or a case of "the more the merrier"?

If SP is allowed by the authorities to promote gambling so brazenly, I shudder to think what will happen when the casino (I refuse to call it Integration Resort or IR... let's call a spade a spade) is ready for operations a few years down the road.

Ok, to be sure, the brochure did advise one to "Play Responsibly" and "Always Play with Care". But what exactly are the measures in place to encourage one to "play responsibly"? The flyer offers no clue.

Category: Musings