Barred gambler arrested for using friend's ID to enter casino

SINGAPORE - A 36-year-old man has been arrested for attempting to enter the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino using his friend's identification document.

The suspect who had tried to enter the casino on Feb 16, had done so without his friend's knowledge and had also been under an exclusion order. He was detained by RWS security officers.

If charged, he could be convicted of entering the casino on false pretences and face a maximum fine of $10,000 or a jail term of three years, or both.

As an excluded person, he is also liable to a maximum fine of $10,000 or a maximum of one year in jail, or both.

For failing to pay the entry levy, he may have to pay a fine not exceeding $1,000 and the unpaid levy.

In April, a barred gambler who had flushed his mother's identity card (IC) down the toilet after using it to enter the Marina Bay Sands casino was sentenced to four weeks in jail after pleading guilty to five charges of using the IC in December 2011.

He was also fined $2,000 for destroying the identification document, while another 22 charges, including eight counts of failing to pay the casino's $100 entry levy, were considered as well.

There has been an increase in the number of people who have been banned from casinos in the past year. More than 15,600 third-party exclusion orders were issued for the 10 months leading to March, taking the total to 43,519. This was about 1½ times the 27,882 at the end of May last year.

The increase came largely as a result of some 15,000 people being banned by the Government as they were receiving financial aid from the Ministry of Social and Family Development's ComCare, or had defaulted on the Housing Board's rental payments.

Commander of Clementi Police Division, deputy assistant commissioner of police Melvin Yong, said the police will not hesitate to take stern action against those who attempt to enter the casinos with false identities as well as those who allow their identification documents to be used by others for unlawful purposes.


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