S'pore retiree gambles at Resorts World for six straight days

Wow, this is serious! Not even showering or sleeping just to gamble for almost 6 days straight! I guess even her 4 kids can't control her - in fact they even indulged her by paying for an Annual Membership!

S'pore retiree gambles at Resorts World for six straight days

By Jeffrey Oon | Yahoo Newsroom – 6 minutes ago

A Singaporean retiree spent six days straight gambling at the tables of Resorts World casino last month.

That includes going without showers or change of clothes for her marathon casino sessions, as well as just "coffee and Milo" to keep her going. After all, she slept roughly just four hours a day during her gambling binge.

The New Paper reports that Madam Alice Tan, 64, lost $12,000 over the six-day session.

The mother of four also revealed the reason why she refused to shower and insisted on going to the casino day after day: a fortune teller had told her she would strike it rich as her "fortune star would be at its brightest" a week before Chinese New Year, which fell on Feb 3 and 4 this year.

"No need for fresh change of clothes; I just wet the towel, clean-rub and then use the deodorant," she said.

"What for (use shower facilities)? It may wash away my luck. Anyway who cares about smell because most times I'd be on the smoking floor since I smoke," she said. "Instead of fresh underwear, I just change panty-liners," she added.

She also told the paper that her six-day binge was her longest ever and most times, she would spend only "two to three days maximum at either RWS or Marina Bay Sands."

She also revealed how she only needs an hour's nap a day when gambling and can sleep anywhere in the casino, including her own car or along the casino's walkways.

When she's "really too tired", she would move from the gambling tables to the jackpot machines which "no need to use brain power... just hit the button and depend on luck".

Otherwise, her favourite game was baccarat and that she usually bet between $500 to $1000 per hand. She set her loss limit at $20,000 per trip.

Madam Tan, who lives in a four-room HDB flat in Simei, said her eldest son -- an architect -- paid the annual $2,000 membership for her at both RWS and MBS. She also gets a monthly allowance of $5,800 from her four children.

Despite being on a losing streak since last July, she said she "can still afford it" and as long as she doesn't gamble on credit, "I won't have to worry about running up debts".

Madam Tan is part of a group of punters who can spend days on a gambling binge.

Just last month, a South Korean research fellow from the National University of Singapore was thought to be missing only for it to be revealed later that he had spent 16 days straight at MBS and had never left the premises.

(20-03-2011, 03:36 PM)Musicwhiz Wrote: Wow, this is serious! Not even showering or sleeping just to gamble for almost 6 days straight! I guess even her 4 kids can't control her - in fact they even indulged her by paying for an Annual Membership!

This is where I find it hard to pass judgement.

After all, this lady could easily be spending her $ on other equally non-meaningful forms of entertainment. Or the flipside of them controlling her gambling habit is that she'd become totally bored and go nuts at home.

I guess as long as her family and her figures that the amount she spends at the casino is under control, it's their right. (Keeping the health issues of playing 6 days straight aside.)

This is where I find it difficult. At what point does an individual's choice become something that an external party has to make on their behalf? How do we measure that?

(20-03-2011, 08:20 PM)kazukirai Wrote: This is where I find it hard to pass judgement.

After all, this lady could easily be spending her $ on other equally non-meaningful forms of entertainment. Or the flipside of them controlling her gambling habit is that she'd become totally bored and go nuts at home.

I guess as long as her family and her figures that the amount she spends at the casino is under control, it's their right. (Keeping the health issues of playing 6 days straight aside.)

This is where I find it difficult. At what point does an individual's choice become something that an external party has to make on their behalf? How do we measure that?

Haha, I guess it would depend on whether the 4 kids even bother to weight the pros and cons of gambling at the IR, as opposed to say gambling at mahjong or indulging in more "harmless" forms of entertainment. After all, I guess one can interest her in Sudoku perhaps? Since she likes numbers so much.....

But I do agree it's hard to pass judgement unless we know more about their circumstances. I apologize for that.

(20-03-2011, 08:24 PM)Musicwhiz Wrote: But I do agree it's hard to pass judgement unless we know more about their circumstances. I apologize for that.

Ah, no worries MW. There's no need to apologize. I'm just bringing another viewpoint to the table in order to generate discussion. After all, that's what a forum is for no? Or maybe for some other forummers to bring personal stories into the dicussion.

I think you would agree with me that the rare chance an apology is needed in this forum is when there are personal attacks or insensitive comments towards a community at large.