How the Sunday Mail helped the Toto sell-off
When the government-owned Sports Toto was sold off to Vincent Tan in 1985 by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, it came after a campaign in the Sunday Mail, then under the editorship of Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, featuring articles by Shaik Osman Majid. Much of the criticisms laid against the government-owned Sports Toto rested on how ineffective it had been in raising money for sports development.
uppercaise 6 jun 2010
Ahmad Sebi, a protege of Mahathir’s alter ego Daim Zainuddin, later became TV3 boss, and was a key player in the Sport Toto privatisation and other deals during those go-go years. During the 1987 Operation Lallang, he was detained for a week after being stopped at the airport with RM20mil in cash in his suitcase as he was trying to leave the country.
A quarter-century later, as another Vincent Tan betting licence gathers controversy, it is pertinent to ask how much the Vincent Tan-owned Sports Toto has contributed to sports development as a percentage of the total bets placed with the company since it became the magic cash cow of Berjaya group.
The government-owned Sports Toto was given a licence by Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1969 to raise money for sports development — that’s the “sports” part of the name. The VT-owned company’s contribution to the National Sports Council in the 2008-09 financial year was RM62m, “a laughable 1.7% of the year’s takings from bets. Its profits were 15% of revenues. By comparison:
The UK National Lottery returns 90% of all bets back to the people. Camelot, the UK lottery operator, takes only 10% of revenues, split between the operator and ticket-sellers. Camelot works with a profit margin of about 0.5% of the lottery’s revenues. Sports Toto in 2008-09 made pre-tax profits of RM558m, a 15% return, on betting revenue of RM3,571m.
» Real reforms worth the gamble
VT being charitable?
Last night’s news was all about Vincent Tan deciding to “donate to charity” the entire RM525m from the sale of Ascot Sport’s betting licence. “I will get zero from this deal,” he’s quoted by Insider. Big deal. His net worth, according to Forbes, is USD1,600mil — or RM5,240mil. The money he’s supposedly “donating” to charity is just 10% of his net worth.
In fact he says he’s giving the money to his own foundation. He is a trustee. So is his son Robin, who still owns 30% of Ascot Sports. (Dr Lim Chong Eu is also a trustee.) The foundation is the one that will actually fund charitable projects.
So Vincent Tan & Son still control where the money goes. Patronage on a grand scale. So much for getting “zero from this deal”.
Hardev elevated
Congratulations to Hardev Kaur, elevated to Datuk in the birthday honours. Hardev and current NSTP and Media Prime executive director Ahmad Talib » (Pahit Manis) were both part of A Kadir Jasin’s team at Business Times all of whom who later went on to lead the NST. Hardev is still keeping busy as a special officer Najib-style at the Treasury, I’m told.
© 2010 uppercaise
uppercaise 
you left out the head of that nest, sebi.
actually kadir jasin had long before that been pulled out of business times to “run” nst, and the kaur moved to nst as a harvard alumni columnist (ho-hum). there was a period from ’86 when others were appointed to run bt, including latterly ahirudin (rocky) atan.
at some point, a. talib moved on to the press institute, among other things, and kadir jasin went on to run his berita publishing, all prior to the mahathir handing over to badawi.
the loyalists had to be moved out of the way, but not moved out.
point is they all got moved around a bit, to reflect who reigns in umno.
but whatever, yes, they’re all datuks today, they served, you see?
hi HC, u still in SG? you should write something about your days, too…
Yes, they served. So do prostitutes.
It is a measure of how low journalism has plumbed the depths of misery that Hardev Kaur, nicknamed Hard Kaur, a sub-literate economics writer and acolyte of Kadir Jasin, is now given a datukship. How much lower can journalism go? Or as Chubby Checker asked, how low can they go? By the way, the judiciary is no better.
Perhaps he can save on the 26% income tax of his gain too.
BTW did the Treasury get anything from the transfer of the company?
It’ll be of interest if anyone can run a similar story on the other gaming outfit which was indirectly given away for free.
After all the ‘hu ha’, VT decided he need to do something to defelct attention. Donating to a foundation owned by VT is just a ‘wayang kulit’. He claims he will be transparent. He can be transparent by letting us know what part he played in the downfall of Perak govt and how much he paid for each of the frogs.
Only fools will believe Vincent Tan. Fortunately not many of them around now.
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Hi uppercase,
I found this article interesting and has blog about it as well and hers is my take about it, http://kongkor.com/2010/06/06/number-betting-and-money-politics/
Cheers,
Kongkor
Thanks. My definition is of course sarcastic, because govt/BN people always say journalists must be “responsible”.
Donating to his own personal foundation? How much of the RM525 million will be actually given to the needy? Five percent a year? And the rest? Will it be re-invested under the name of the foundation and withdrawn after a few years? This is the trick employed by the mega-rich worldwide.
This guy was certainly cunning indeed. He did not commit on how the cash would be disbursed; neither did he say to which segment of the society. To me, this is just to hoodwink the rakyat. End of the day is i give you one, you give me 3 in return. Never ever trust this guy esp he was a blue eye boy of the now half dead mamak kutty.
Yes… I know what you mean, I suppose the past and current administration DOES NOT UNDERSTAND the concept that the government is and must be responsible to the citizens and not the other way round.