Batang Ai by-election

BOOKIES & PKR SUPPORTERS BADLY BURNT IN BATANG AI.Barisan Nasional’s big win in the Batang Ai by-election burned huge holes in the pockets of bookies in the state.Many of the bookies had accepted bets on the prediction of a narrow margin of victory of between 300 and 500 votes.Some even predicted a narrow win in favour of the opposition.When the margin turned out to be 1,854 votes for the Barisan, the bookies had to pay huge amounts, sources said.A businessman here said he heard that the biggest bet placed was RM50,000 by someone in Kuching, who predicted that the Barisan would win by more than 1,000 votes.Barisan’s Malcolm Mussen Lamoh garnered 3,907 votes against PKR’s Jawah’s 2,053.The bets were taken by bookies operating from urban centres.Their modus operandi is similar to the 4D syndicates who take bets online and via SMS and telephone calls. Payments are usually made via telegraphic transfers.There were also those who placed small sums for the fun of it, including many workers in the plantations in Batang Ai.Very few people had predicted that the Barisan would beat the PKR by such a big margin. In the past two state elections, the Barisan won by less than 900 votes in Batang Ai.