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A case of 'heads I win, tails you lose'
Published:  Jun 6, 2010 8:03 AM
Updated: Jun 7, 2010 12:19 AM

your say 'With legalised betting, many housewives, school children, and ordinary folks, who never had or did not know where to place bets before, can now find easy access to these betting outlets.'

 

Sports betting row: Tan to donate RM525 mil to charity

Alexius Phun: Donating to his own personal foundation? How much of the RM525 million will be actually given to the needy? Five percent a year? And the rest? Will it be re-invested under the name of the foundation and withdrawn after a few years? This is the trick employed by the mega-rich worldwide.

Cala: This guy was certainly cunning. He did not commit on how the cash would be disbursed; neither did he say to which segment of the society. To me, the Pakatan Rakyat coalition should stick to their original stand - all forms of gambling are necessarily bad.

Otherwise, what is the difference between the BN and Pakatan? 1Genting is more than enough for us to chew.

Tan was famous for his deal-making role with the Mahathir regime. In fact, he was the blue-eye boy of Mahathir. Do you remember the Indah Water Consortium (IWC) issue in the 1980s and 1990s? He privatised it at peanut kind of price, and he made the government paid him millions upon surrendering the company.

To him, any arrangement works, but it has to be heads he wins, and tails he wins too.

Wira: This is despicable. Taking money from the poor and returning a fraction of it in the name of charity. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.

Quigonbond: I think Pakatan states are sensible in disallowing sports betting. What's half-a-billion ringgit compared to the tens of billions he will make? Some estimates has already placed government taxes alone will come up to RM60 billion.

This controversial personality has featured prominently in the VK Lingam inquiry, remember? If left to speculation, most people wouldn't dismiss the possibility that he funds political parties (and, one ponders, towards nefarious ends?).

Au Fait: Vincent Tan, we know how you secured the exclusivity on the sports betting. We also know how you got the Sports Toto back from the Dr Mahathir Mohamad/BN government.

You expect people to be sensible and fair-minded in pursuit of your aim to be super-billionaire. The miseries from gambling are none of your business, and you never want to know. How about the special draws you make every time there is a need for money from Umno?

MW Aiya: With 30 percent ownership plus his current shares in Berjaya Group, RM525 million is peanuts. This is a just a lame Pakatan exercise. I would be impressed only if a large percentage of the proceeds goes to charity permanently, instead of a one-time write-off for this sandiwara .

Anonymous: Do we trust Berjaya? No way. Remember what happened to the Berjaya Vacation Club (BVC) members? They got cheated. When they joined the club, there were places to book, but when the membership gets bigger, instead of expanding, they reduced the number of places and had the cheek to charge for places that used to be free.

Now members can hardly book a decent holiday despite paying more that RM30,000 to Berjaya. I am not against sports betting, but I do not trust Berjaya.

J Yeoh: It is a bribery. VT (Vincent Tan) will get back the RM525 million in no time. Let's continue to say a big, clear and loud no to legalise football betting.

I am also a BVC member and I also felt cheated, because after paying RM38,000, I now find that I can hardly get a vocation venue/hotel to enjoy my entitlements for the past few years - so much restrictions and the hotels' rates are much higher than for walk-in-customers.

Sentinel: This is like Hulu Selangor and Sibu by-elections tactics of his No 1 boss the 1PM - you vote for my sports betting and on Monday, I will issue the cheque for RM526 million. If you don't, no need to come see me.

Louis: Instead of donating the money to charity, we prefer you to stop the game betting. RM525 million cannot undo the harm done to so many innocent people.

Just imagine, with legalised betting, many housewives, school children, and ordinary folks, who never had or did not know where to place bets before, can now find easy access to these betting outlets. And Mr Tan, imagine how many lives are going to be wrecked.

Yes, maybe your betting outlet might encourage Malaysians to follow spotting activities for the wrong reasons - supporting the teams they betted on. Penang and Selangor might have only 150 outlets, but the betting population is concentrated in those two states. We pray that those two states will not give in to those sinful betting.

Tkc: If one were to follow the Berjaya Group over the last 25 years, it has done a significant number of questionable mergers and acquisitions within the group - the right pocket to left pocket type of deals. So what is stopping Vincent to set up a foundation now and then transfer the money back to one of his subsidiaries at a later stage?

Anyway, after been bitten a number of times, I never trust a Chinese guy with a moustache.

Mockingbird: Sports Toto is guilty of having contributed significantly towards this gambling addiction; and now Berjaya is rubbing salt into the wounded gamblers by further destroying them with football betting.

DOC: I use to believe betting was bad as it is a form of addiction to some, seen families break apart when a family member loses everything to this habit, and not to mention it is non- halal according to whichever religion one professes.

But today Vincent Tan has showed me the error in my thinking. Betting is not a scourge that should be frowned upon. With every ringgit I place a bet under Ascot Sports, I can rest assured my bet is helping a fellow needy Malaysian. On top of that, if I win as a result of my bet, it will add cash in my pocket. It is a real win-win situation.

From today, I will cease donating money to the poor, religious societies that help the needy, organisations that help the less fortunate members of the society, etc, etc. I am going to start betting with Ascot Sports to help myself and help Malaysia through the Better Malaysia Foundation.

Anonymous: By roping in illegal football gambling and loan sharks to fight his cause is just too pathetic. With or without legalised gambling, there will still be illegal gambling. Look, we have Genting Highlands, Magnum, Sport Toto and Dai Ma Cai and yet illegal gambling exist.

To legalise football gambling is to also to legalise illegal gambling. Leave the illegal gambling to the authority to take care of the problem. Where is Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali and why he did not protest when comes to such matters about gambling?

Jbss: This RM525 million is nothing compared to the profit over the long term that the sports betting licence can generate for the licensee. The possibility of losing the licence and the other game-of-chance licences given could have been the motivating factor for channeling the RM525 million into the charitable foundation and to make it look like a magnanimous gesture.

Imagine how much more money might have been thrown into buying favour to secure the licence.

Arul Inthirarajah: Does this man really think the public can be bought at his whim and fancy? It looks like just a bribe being offered to the public in another name. Why the sudden rush to apparent generosity when he does not have a track record of philanthropy?

Md Imraz Muhammed Ikhbal: Charity? Umno coffers you mean?

 


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