A group of older men was seen playing mahjong at the stairwell of an HDB at Yishun Avenue 6 at about 11 pm, causing a number of residents to complain. The uncles were seen by one resident to be smoking, drinking, and gambling, and the noise they made kept some neighbours from getting a good night’s sleep.
A resident who asked to only be identified as Lin told Shin Min Daily News he saw the men playing mahjong on folding tables between the second and third floors of the building. He took a video of the group of around eight to ten men and said that the men gathered until past 1 am.
Another resident, 62, originally thought that some of her neighbours were having a party as she saw the tables and chairs getting set up earlier that day. Even after her grandson got home at 4 am the following morning, the men kept on playing.
She told Shin Min Daily News that if the gathering had simply been for a meal, she would have accepted it. “But not if it involves gambling,” she added.
Social gambling inside a person’s home was made legal as of March 11 of this year, after Parliament passed the Gambling Control Bill, but those who play must personally know each other or be in the same family.
Gambling should also not be carried out in the course of any business, AsiaOne reported.
A person convicted of running an illegal gambling house faces a fine between $5,000 and $50,000 and a jail sentence of as long as three years.
Some netizens slammed the group of men for being so inconsiderate of their neighbours’ rest.
But others, however, said this type of activity helps “them to stay mentally active in old age” and that the kampung spirit should be encouraged.
Others worried that such activities would encourage other gamblers.
But one woman suggested a solution, should the uncles decide to play mahjong till late again.
/TISG