Kelong Kings: Confessions of the world's most prolific match-fixer by Wilson Raj Perumal, Alessandro Righi, Emanuele Piano
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gang
members and get them to testify that you are a member of their trade
group, then they can lock you up without a trial for five to seven
years. This law is still applied in Singapore, which is nonetheless
considered to be a democratic country. Pal was in Section 55 for
three years. Only three years; lucky bastard.
Pal was born a
gambler. When he was detained, gambling was already rife within the
prison walls; it was the only way to kill time and Pal actively took
part in it. The stake in jail was usually tobacco or cash. When you
lost, if you paid your debt inside, the amount you owed would remain
unchanged; but if your debt was settled outside, you would have to
pay three times the amount lost. Prisons often assemble sports teams
and organize competitions between the different prison halls. Pal
used to bribe the players in the basketball teams and Sepak Takraw
teams in order to win his bets. Sepak Takraw is a three-man game that
is very popular among Malaysians; it's like a mix of football and
tennis. Football gambling was also a common pass-time in jail, as I
found out myself when I was locked up.
I
was told that when Pal came out in 1989, he struck a huge win with
the 4D: four digits. In Singapore, 4D's
are very popular; they're much like the lottery: you pick four
numbers and, if they are drawn, you win. The weekly 4D weekend draws
attract long queues of gamblers outside the Singapore Pools lottery shops.
But Singapore Pools are not the only ones that sell 4D tickets. The
Chinese bookmakers have always put up a stiff competition against the
legal gambling industry and offered their own, illegal, 4D lottery.
The only difference between the two is that the Chinese will pay your
win on the same night, while the State-licensed companies will wait
until the following day and will issue a check for any win above ten
thousand Singapore dollars. After he was released from prison, Pal
apparently bought a lot of illegal 4Ds and struck a
one-million-dollar jackpot. His pockets bulging with cash, Pal
thought: "Fuck. I can execute the same match-fixing that I did
in prison in the Malaysia Cup".
Certain Malaysian
state teams had plenty of Indian guys in their lineups. Somehow Pal
managed to find one or two Indian international players who could
help him and began fixing their matches. With the help of these
players, he slowly began knitting a network of Indian footballers
throughout all of Malaysia. The Indian players brought in their
Malaysian colleagues, who in turn brought in the Chinese; soon Pal had an empire
at his feet and, by the year 1992, was able to control as many as 10
out of the 14 Malaysian state teams playing in the cup. In some of
these teams, Pal controlled as many as 11 players at once. His
success was due in large part to the huge amounts of money that he
offered to his players. It was an unprecedented phenomenon in the
Malaysia Cup and Pal soon managed to wipe away all of his
competitors; no one was able to match his quota.
In those days, the
Chinese guys who fixed matches would bet two to three hundred
thousand Singapore dollars tops on a single game, while Pal was
betting 1 to 1.5 million dollars per match. While the other fixers
were afraid that, if they incurred a significant loss, they would have never
been able to recover, Pal trusted his players and bought their
loyalty with handsome presents. Soon he could boast total control
over players, referees and officials; everyone hanged on his lips. His bets were so large that they would alter
the odds: if the odds were one-ball and Pal decided to give, they
would increase to five-ball. Then, if he was collecting the wager
from the five-ball, the odds would drop back down to one. It was
total havoc.
In those years we
never placed our bets in China but the wagers were nonetheless all
managed by Chinese agents; everything related to gambling was
absorbed by them. Malaysia was just a phone call away and in
Singapore there were plenty of Chinese runners,
members and get them to testify that you are a member of their trade
group, then they can lock you up without a trial for five to seven
years. This law is still applied in Singapore, which is nonetheless
considered to be a democratic country. Pal was in Section 55 for
three years. Only three years; lucky bastard.
Pal was born a
gambler. When he was detained, gambling was already rife within the
prison walls; it was the only way to kill time and Pal actively took
part in it. The stake in jail was usually tobacco or cash. When you
lost, if you paid your debt inside, the amount you owed would remain
unchanged; but if your debt was settled outside, you would have to
pay three times the amount lost. Prisons often assemble sports teams
and organize competitions between the different prison halls. Pal
used to bribe the players in the basketball teams and Sepak Takraw
teams in order to win his bets. Sepak Takraw is a three-man game that
is very popular among Malaysians; it's like a mix of football and
tennis. Football gambling was also a common pass-time in jail, as I
found out myself when I was locked up.
I
was told that when Pal came out in 1989, he struck a huge win with
the 4D: four digits. In Singapore, 4D's
are very popular; they're much like the lottery: you pick four
numbers and, if they are drawn, you win. The weekly 4D weekend draws
attract long queues of gamblers outside the Singapore Pools lottery shops.
But Singapore Pools are not the only ones that sell 4D tickets. The
Chinese bookmakers have always put up a stiff competition against the
legal gambling industry and offered their own, illegal, 4D lottery.
The only difference between the two is that the Chinese will pay your
win on the same night, while the State-licensed companies will wait
until the following day and will issue a check for any win above ten
thousand Singapore dollars. After he was released from prison, Pal
apparently bought a lot of illegal 4Ds and struck a
one-million-dollar jackpot. His pockets bulging with cash, Pal
thought: "Fuck. I can execute the same match-fixing that I did
in prison in the Malaysia Cup".
Certain Malaysian
state teams had plenty of Indian guys in their lineups. Somehow Pal
managed to find one or two Indian international players who could
help him and began fixing their matches. With the help of these
players, he slowly began knitting a network of Indian footballers
throughout all of Malaysia. The Indian players brought in their
Malaysian colleagues, who in turn brought in the Chinese; soon Pal had an empire
at his feet and, by the year 1992, was able to control as many as 10
out of the 14 Malaysian state teams playing in the cup. In some of
these teams, Pal controlled as many as 11 players at once. His
success was due in large part to the huge amounts of money that he
offered to his players. It was an unprecedented phenomenon in the
Malaysia Cup and Pal soon managed to wipe away all of his
competitors; no one was able to match his quota.
In those days, the
Chinese guys who fixed matches would bet two to three hundred
thousand Singapore dollars tops on a single game, while Pal was
betting 1 to 1.5 million dollars per match. While the other fixers
were afraid that, if they incurred a significant loss, they would have never
been able to recover, Pal trusted his players and bought their
loyalty with handsome presents. Soon he could boast total control
over players, referees and officials; everyone hanged on his lips. His bets were so large that they would alter
the odds: if the odds were one-ball and Pal decided to give, they
would increase to five-ball. Then, if he was collecting the wager
from the five-ball, the odds would drop back down to one. It was
total havoc.
In those years we
never placed our bets in China but the wagers were nonetheless all
managed by Chinese agents; everything related to gambling was
absorbed by them. Malaysia was just a phone call away and in
Singapore there were plenty of Chinese runners,
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