SINGAPORE: Wang Lei shares about his old gambling addiction struggles in the new song of Malaysian singer, Namewee, titled ‘The 20th Floor’. According to reports, the Getai singer had reached $300K in gambling debts and was the target of 11 loan sharks once upon a time.
He revealed that he once gambled the money meant for her mother’s cancer treatment — which he feels shameful about. He also gambled a whole lot of his cash processed from selling his HDB flat in 1999, which amounted to a $230K loss at poker tables on cruise ships for a total of three days.
‘The 20th Floor’ singer Namewee never gambled like Wang Lei, but he had witnessed the difficulties of his friends who struggled with gambling addiction. He wrote the song about gambling after seeing an interview with Wang Lei. To make the song even more personal, Namewee invited Wang Lei to sing it.
“Most people think that ‘small’ gambling is fun, but if it becomes a habit, it will one day turn into ‘big’ gambling and eventually compulsive gambling. And subsequently, you will turn your back on your family,” Wang Lei admitted.
“When you owe a lot of money, you will borrow money from underground lenders, and the interest is very scary. The interest snowballs and eventually, it becomes several times more than the principal amount,” the singer added.
With the support of his wife, Wang Lei managed to quit his gambling addiction and repay all of his debts.
‘The 20th Floor’ song is a combination of rock and rap. Namewee wanted to include vulgar words as lyrics because it suits the way Wang Lei sings but decided not to for the sake of gaining more exposure on radio stations.