Cold hard cash, about S$1.74 million (US$1.27 million) of the stuff, that’s what police walked away with in a series of raids on illegal gambling facilities that saw 36 people arrested on Sunday.
The outlets in question facilitated online gambling with overseas outlets, something that’s strictly forbidden by Singaporean law, which limits citizens to gambling on horse racing, the lottery and certain other sports through approved local operators like Singapore Pools and Turf Club.
The raids on Sunday took place in multiple locations across Bedok, Pasir Ris, Toa Payoh, Rivervale and Chinatown, police said on their website today.
Among those arrested were 33 men and three women aged between 26 and 75.
Police declined to comment on why so much cash would be kept on hand at facilities that were dealing with online transactions or what games of chance were actually involved.
Eleven of the men were scheduled to appear in court today, where they will be charged for remote gambling offenses, while the remaining suspects are still being detained during ongoing investigations, police said, adding that it is facilitating the freezing of the suspects’ bank accounts.
Other than the cash that was seized, authorities also confiscated computers and mobile phones as well as documents containing electronic betting records.
Those found guilty of providing unlawful remote gambling services could be fined between S$20,000 and S$200,000, jailed for up to five years, or both.
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