Illegal gambling ring collected in Singapore collected $20m in 9 years

An ongoing court case in Singapore revealed that an illegal gambling syndicate had collected between $9.7 million and $20.2 million from its customers in a span of nine years starting from 2007.

Lim Teng Kok, one among the operators, pleaded guilty to three offences under the new Organised Crime Act, which was passed in Parliament in 2015 and took effect in June 2016.

Lim, 68, also admitted to two other charges involving illegal gambling activities.

There were allegedly more than 30 persons involved in illegal remote gambling services. All of them were arrested.

DPP Teo told District Judge Ng Peng Hong: “The accused would get a commission of 10 per cent of the total bets collected from his own punters. If the accused’s punters struck lottery, he would receive an additional 5 per cent of the winning amount.”

She added that Lim later had 80 punters placing illegal bets with him. Over time, he became a “master agent” and recruited a pool of about 15 agents under him. These agents would then collect illegal bets from punters.

The court heard that Lim earned more than $200,000 in commission between 2007 and 2015 in total.

DPP Teo urged Judge Ng to sentence him to five years and four months’ jail with a fine of $288,000. She said the court should send a strong message to deter others from committing similar offences.

Defence lawyer Steven Lam pleaded for his client to be handed a jail sentence of between three years and eight months and four years, with a $200,000 fine. He said Lim committed the offences due to dire financial circumstances and had to raise funds to treat his daughter’s kidney failure.

Lim was offered bail of $15,000 and is expected to be sentenced on Jan 15 next year.