WHEN riding the train or taking a cab,Mr Alfred Tay can be spotted either shufflinga deck of cards or playing the latest casinogames on his iPhone.

He loses sleep over deciphering how gamecheats outsmart casinos and keeping up withtrends in the gaming industry.

However, Mr Tay is not a problemgambler. It is all in a day’s work for the31-year-old, who co-leads the newly formedenforcement branch from the CasinoRegulatory Authority.

“It’s a vast playground out there. Thereare so many new games and casino protocolsto learn, and I like the challenge of stayingon top of things,” he said.

Besides overseeing the inspection roundsat the casinos, he investigates cases referredto him by the casinos.

He credits his former work as a seniorinvestigation officer with the CriminalInvestigation Department for putting him ingood stead when he deals with people fromall walks of life.

A few months ago, for example, a casinodirected him to a patron who refused toforfeit her winnings and leave even thoughshe was under an exclusion order.

After speaking to her, Mr Tay managed togain her trust and she not only revealed howmuch she had won but also left voluntarily.

Whenever chips or cash need to be seized,Mr Tay’s knowledge of evidence handlingalso means he knows how to do it withoutdestroying the telltale clues.

He visits casinos overseas and consultstheir experts to learn how new games areplayed and how cheats circumvent security.

Every two weeks, he shares these tipswith his team during training sessions.

“It’s a dream come true for me,” he saidwith a boyish grin. “How many of us get tolive and breathe games for a living?”JANICE TAI

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By JANICE TAI

OBVIOUS in their crisp suits, en-forcement officers Faith Lim andSteven Tan stride into the casi-no’s mass gaming hall.

Immediately, eyes swivel intheir direction. In a crowd of punt-ers dressed casually in polo teesand jeans, the two officers standout from the rest.

Their conspicuous presence isdeliberate. As part of the CasinoRegulatory Authority’s newlyformed enforcement branch, theyaim to keep casino operators ontheir toes by showing them thatsomeone is watching.

Since April, the 12-strongbranch has been carrying out dailypatrols at the two casinos here.They make sure dealers stick togame rules, machines are not tam-pered with and that casino staffdo not allow excluded people in.

They also speak with patronsand casino staff to get a handle ontrends in the gaming industry andensure that proper procedures arefollowed.

The Straits Times spent an af-ternoon with them last Wednes-day to observe them in action. Ms

Lim and Mr Tan headed for thebaccarat tables after noticing acrowd gathering there.

Standing unobtrusively behindthe crowd, they observed the deal-er closely, watching for tell-talesigns of any collusion with a par-ticular patron, such as lifting thecards too high and exposing theirnumbers.

While observing several roundsof the game, Ms Lim took notes

on her iPad, typing in details suchas the type of people attracted tocertain games for future analysis.

The pair then proceeded to theslot machines.

They noticed that one of themwas idle but still had a user’s mem-bership card slotted in.

Ms Lim, 25, approached the at-tendant and was told that the userhad gone on a toilet break afterasking the attendant to guard the

machine and his card for him.She said enforcement officers

take note of such incidents be-cause they could lead to securityrisks such as someone using anoth-er person’s account to gamble.

A few rows down, Ms Limstopped again.

The vigilant officer had noticeda winning ticket dangling from amachine. It indicated winnings of25 cents.

She approached the attendantnearby and queried him on howhe goes about verifying who thewinnings belonged to. The attend-ant showed her on a computerhow he is able to trace the rightfulwinner using a database of log-intimings and membership num-bers.

“It’s just a few cents and the pa-tron probably couldn’t be both-ered to claim it but it was achance to check if the staff was fa-miliar with the verification proto-col,” said Ms Lim.

Later on, she and her partnerTan, 37, instructed an attendantto open up some of the machinesso that they could check whetherthe seals inside were intact. If theseals have been tampered with,the integrity of the games is com-promised.

As dinner time approached,they ended their patrol. It hadbeen a long day for the officers.Earlier, they had attended a train-ing session where they learnt howcon men carry out a fake shuffle, asleight of hand where the cardslook like they have been movedaround but their original arrange-ment is actually preserved.

“No day at the casino is thesame and it is the dynamic natureof the work that I do that keepsme going,” said Ms Lim.

jantai@sph.com.sg

Mr Vincent Lee (left) and Mr Alfred Tay (right) lead theCasino Regulatory Authority’s new enforcement branch.The 12-strong squad has been carrying out daily patrols atSingapore’s two casinos.

ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM

MORE companies here are hiring instructors to con-duct laughter yoga workshops.

Laughter yoga involves laughing for a prolongedperiod using yogabreathing tech-niques.

Mind Your Bodytoday looks at itshealth benefits andfeatures some exer-c i s e s t o t r y a thome.

We also givetips for patientswho have heart dis-ease on how towork out safely.

Such people areencouraged to exer-cise despite theircondition, becausedoing so has beenshown to prolong

their lives.And we serve up a recipe that makes a dish of

french beans and tomatoes more heart-healthy byadding walnuts and olive oil.

By RACHEL AU-YONG

PROFESSORS Barry Halliwelland Freddy Boey are two of akind. The pair of university depu-ty presidents each won the Presi-dent’s Science and TechnologyMedal – Singapore’s top scienceaccolade – yesterday.

This is the first time there aredouble winners since the Nation-al Science and TechnologyAwards were rebranded as thePresident’s Science and Technol-ogy Awards in 2009.

The two professors receivedgold medals from PresidentTony Tan Keng Yam at a ceremo-ny held in the Gardens by theBay’s Flower Dome.

The jury praised NanyangTechnological University’s(NTU) Prof Boey, who has devel-oped more than 30 patents, forfusing his academic and entrepre-neurship talents.

One of his inventions is a cus-tomisable hernia mesh whichminimises infection after sur-gery. It was the first of its kindto be approved for sale by theUnited States’ Food and DrugAdministration last December.

Described as “ahead of histime”, National University ofSingapore’s (NUS) Prof Halliwellwas looking into antioxidantsand free radicals as early as 15years ago, when he first came toSingapore from London.

He told The Straits Times:“When I started, there were onlythree people in this area. Nowthe results affect a host of thingslike nutrition and plant science.”

The President’s ScienceAward and President’s Technolo-gy Award, which come with$50,000 and a trophy each,

were also given out at yester-day’s ceremony.

The President’s ScienceAward was given to Prof Yu Haofrom NUS for his work in plantgenomics, and to Prof BorisLuk’yanchuk from the Agencyfor Science, Technology and Re-search (A*Star) for his work onlaser-matter interactions.

The President’s TechnologyAward was given to A*Star’s DrLi Haizhou, for creating severaltechnologies for translatingAsian languages like BahasaMelayu and Chinese dialects.

President Tan also gave outthe Young Scientist Award tothree researchers under the ageof 35. They were Assistant Pro-fessor Qiu Chengwei (NUS), As-sistant Professor Yonggui RobinChi (NTU) and Dr Khor ChieaChuen (NUS and A*Star).

At the ceremony, Second Min-ister for Trade and Industry, MrS. Iswaran, said the Governmentremains committed to researchand development, and that itwill look to “grow new sectorssuch as medical technology, nu-trition and business analytics”.

rachelay@sph.com.sg

Team makes presence felt, ensures rules are followed

AHEAD OF HIS TIME

When I started, therewere only three people inthis area. Now the resultsaffect a host of things likenutrition and plantscience.– Prof Barry Halliwell, who waslooking into antioxidants and freeradicals as early as 15 years ago

Casino patrolslook out for

foul play

Laugh your waythrough yoga

University deputy presidentswin S’pore’s top science prize

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