After political scandals make headlines, 4D numbers sell out early
Permutations were based on the ages of politicians involved
Tell a Singaporean your problems and they’ll likely find a way to put a number on it. More specifically, four-digit numbers.
It comes as little surprise that after the People's Action Party and Workers' Party both made headlines this week regarding the extramarital affairs discovered within their ranks, people made a beeline for Singapore Pools outlets islandwide.
Their hopeful numbers? Permutations based on the ages of the politicians involved.
Tan Chuan-Jin is 54, and Cheng Li Hui is 47, while Leon Perera is 53, and Nicole Seah is 36.
As a result, Singapore Pools stopped accepting bets on four 4D numbers – 5447, 4754, 5336, and 3653 – as early as Wednesday afternoon (July 19).
4D draws occur on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
This, naturally, left some punters aggreived.
"I was a bit surprised when I found out those numbers weren't available," said Annette Ong, 46, who visited the Pools outlet at People's Park Centre on Wednesday evening.
"If it's a major traffic accident, then yes, obviously people will flock to buy the vehicle's licence plate. But it's quite interesting that so many people would think to buy the ages (of the politicians) after reading (the news stories).
"I was given the idea by my sister-in-law... I think maybe someone thought of it and made a post about it on social media. Then it quickly caught on."
Singapore Pools restricts the number of bets wagered on a particular set of numbers as a way to curb its downside, in the event the number emerges as a winner.
This is far from the first time a set of numbers have “sold out” early.
According to Mothership, a previous such occurrence was on Aug 13, 2016, when Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling clinched gold at the Rio Olympics in the 100m butterfly.
His race timing: 50.39 seconds.
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