How Vincent Tan became the Gaming King of Malaysia

Vincent Tan can deny it all he wants. The bottom line is he is the front man for Umno. He is Umno’s nominee. He owns only part of his gambling empire. The rest is owned by Umno but held by him as trustee.

Tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan today said he will appeal to states under Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to rescind the ban on sports betting.

The Selangor, Kedah and Penang governments have already declared that they will disallow sports betting in the states.

“I will appeal to them to be fair minded,” said Tan.
Since the BN government awarded a sports betting licence to Tan’s Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd last month, the DAP has gone on a crusade against them, accusing the ruling coalition of enriching the tycoon but impoverishing the people. – The Malaysian Insider

The Berjaya Corp chairman and chief executive officer said this to dispel unsubstantiated claims that the money from the deal would go to the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN).
Tan also lashed out at fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin for raising the allegations.
“The allegations are pure nonsense,” he said. – The Malaysian Insider

First of all, Vincent Tan did pay Hee of Perak millions of ringgit as an inducement for her to jump ship. This was confirmed by three people. One was a senior man from Umno, the second the President of one of the non-Malay political parties in Barisan Nasional, and the third a Chinese Datuk who is also involved in the gambling business. And these three Deep Throats have never before given me false or wrong information.

In fact, these people told me that Perak was going to fall long before the state actually fell. And they also warned me that Kedah and Selangor were next on the list. They warned me that a ‘shopping spree’ was going to be launched to buy over Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and State Assemblypersons from the Pakatan Rakyat states, Penang included. And they also told me that Vincent Tan was footing the bill.

Today, what I had been told has proven to be true.

Do you know that Vincent Tan does not really own the entire interest in his gambling empire? He owns only part of it. The rest belongs to Umno but held under trust by Vincent Tan. This was the deal struck way back when Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, then the CEO of TV3, conjured the scam during the time when Daim Zainuddin was the Finance Minister.

Ahmad Sebi told Vincent Tan that Umno could not park the shares under its own name because, being the so-called largest Muslim party in the world, as Tun Dr Mahathir himself had declared, this would be a sensitive issue. So they needed to hide Umno’s interest under a non-Muslim nominee. And Vincent Tan is that non-Muslim nominee.

Now you know how Sports Toto ended up in the hands of Vincent Tan.

Then what about the tens of thousands of ‘one-armed bandits’ that Vincent Tan is operating all over Malaysia, East Malaysia included (which has the most number of machines per capita)?
Why are the police not raiding these illegal gambling outlets to confiscate the machines and arrest the operators? Well, they do, actually, but the police only raid those outlets not owned by Vincent Tan. Those ‘competitors’ to Vincent Tan suffer police raids and confiscations. Those owned by Vincent Tan do not.

Speak to any Chinese underworld boss. Go have a Chinese dinner in Jalan Imbi at Sakura or one of those places and talk to the Chinese underworld people. I have. And they will be able to tell you how the scam works and why Vincent Tan has kekebalan (immunity) while the others do not.

Vincent Tan can deny it all he wants. The bottom line is he is the front man for Umno. He is Umno’s nominee. He owns only part of his gambling empire. The rest is owned by Umno but held by him as trustee.

How do I know all this?
Let me put it this way. I was there when the deal was struck. Maybe Vincent Tan does not remember me. Well, his Malay directors do because I went to school with some of them and two of them were actually my batch-mates in the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

Yes, Vincent, I was that Kwailo-looking guy in the bush jacket who was sitting across the table from Ahmad Sebi when you walked into the room without knocking and interrupted our meeting.

Next time knock first before entering. Don’t barge in like you are so fond of doing. You barged into the room and interrupted our meeting without giving me any face. You did not even look at me and acted as if I was invisible. Then you started talking about your scam as if I was not there.

And that was your mistake, Vincent. As Julia Roberts said in ‘Pretty Woman’: big mistake.
So your arrangement with Umno is not something new. It is a very old arrangement since the time when Ahmad Sebi was heading TV3 and when Daim Zainuddin was the Finance Minister. And your one-armed bandits licence was an arrangement since the time when Mohd Farid Ariffin was the Deputy Finance Minister. And when Farid Ariffin tried to end your monopoly of these slot machines, you arranged for his political career to come to an early halt.

But never mind. Farid Ariffin is now heading a more worthy cause. He set up MAKNA (http://www.makna.org.my/) that is helping to fight cancer. You did the nation a great favour by forcing him into retirement for opposing your monopoly on slot machines. Now we have MAKNA (Majlis Kanser Nasional or the National Cancer Council).

Raja Petra Kamarudin