SINGAPORE – An overseas-based gambling website has continued to recruit individuals in Singapore to set up shell companies to facilitate bets, amid efforts to make South-east Asia a hub for punters.
Curacao-based GemBet is said to be operated by a gambling syndicate with links to groups in Cyprus.
The only licensed operator for lotteries, sports betting and remote gambling services is Singapore Pools, and all others – online or offline – are illegal.
The Straits Times learnt that GemBet circumvents the rules by hiring individuals in Singapore to issue fake invoices for services and goods to punters. These monies are then deposited in digital wallets linked to the gambling site.
One invoice seen by ST showed an $80 payment to a Singapore-registered company operating out of a Punggol residential address. The invoice claimed the money was for pre-owned gaming equipment.
Corporate records revealed that the firm – registered in April by a 19-year-old woman – is actually a wholesale trading company, with a secondary business activity connecting buyers with third-party food sellers for a commission.
Her LinkedIn page identified herself as a tertiary student. No one answered the door when ST visited the flat on Nov 4.
GemBet made the headlines in July during the FIFA World Cup, when ST reported that the site was funnelling bets and payouts through PayNow transactions made with three local companies registered earlier in 2026.
The firms included a manpower company, a cleaning services provider and a wholesale trader.
Nine people were arrested a week after the report.
Six of them are suspected of setting up business entities and corporate bank accounts believed to have been used to facilitate monetary transactions for illegal gambling, while three are said to have assisted the syndicate behind GemBet in obtaining these entities and bank accounts.
Following the arrests, panic spread in a Telegram group of over 2,600 members, as punters worried that they would be targeted next by police.
Following news of nine arrests, members in a Telegram group chat for GemBet users panicked.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM TELEGRAM
Punters said their bank accounts had been frozen as a result of the police investigation.
In response, individuals in Singapore began to issue fake invoices in a bid to disguise the illegal gambling transactions as payments for legitimate services.
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