Like father, like son. A father-and-son team out of Singapore are going to spend the next several years in jail for operating an illegal gambling business in the country. They were reportedly the masterminds behind a transnational gambling outfit that booked wagers on Singapore Pools lotteries, and were handed their sentences by a judge this past Tuesday after having been arrested this past April. How much time they spend behind bars will depend on whether or not they can come up with the money to cover the fines that were also levied.
44-year-old Ow Choon Bok and 73-year-old Ow Gowan Hock admitted to their scheme, which reportedly began in 2009. While the exact take of their enterprise isn’t known, it was determined that they made around $670,500 in a six-month period in 2016. Extrapolating for the entirety of the scheme, it’s possible that they could have potentially taken around $10 million between 2009 and 2016.
The duo offered their services to anyone willing to take part and launched a website, ss772.net, to help drum up business. They were accepting bets on public lotteries in Singapore, including one called the “10,000 characters lottery” associated with Singapore Pools’ 4D and TOTO games. The son was responsible for managing staff, wagers and payouts, at one point even allowing a criminal syndicate to use the platform to run their own illegal gambling operations. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his illegal entrepreneurial spirit.
The father is said to have assisted his son in running the illegal site and used his personal bank accounts as repositories for some of the cash received for the bets. He will only serve three and a half years for his involvement.
