SEARCH NEWS:

 

Lottery Hopefuls Bet on Bizarre Rituals

"Superintendent Benjamin Hasbie said [a suspect] had admitted that a group of three men and a woman killed the American as an offering to local spirits in return for being told the winning numbers in 4D, an extremely popular lottery game where punters have to guess the winning four digits.

"….Ms Abdullah was 35 when she disappeared on November 11 1999. This is considered an extremely auspicious date by superstitious gamblers as the combination of ones and nines signifies prosperity in Chinese culture.

"Supt Hasbie said such ritualistic murders were rare in Malaysia and he knew of only two similar cases in the last decade. One involved a woman, Mona Affandi, who was convicted in the early 1990s of being involved in several ritualistic killings. The other was when a Chinese man's body was found mutilated and cut into eight pieces. Eight is also considered a lucky number in east Asian cultures.

"…Equally superstitious are the Thais, more than half of whom regularly buy lottery tickets.."'

"…In recent weeks Thai lottery `rubbers" have discovered a new source of inspiration, a sick monitor lizard in Nonthaburi, a town just north of Bangkok.

"This unsuspecting reptile shot to fame after a boy was killed in an accident. When his mother returned from the funeral she found the lizard sleeping under her son's photograph and was instantly convinced that the lizard had become possessed by the son's spirit. She started feeding it milk and yoghurt and word soon got out that winning lottery numbers would appear on its back if its skin was rubbed. Needless to say, people were queuing up by the busload within days to make contact with the lucky lizard.

"…Praying to dead spirits to select winning numbers has even caught on in Cambodia where the crematorium site of the country's late dictator, Pol Pot, has recently become a shrine for lottery aficionados. Recent media reports say that Pol Pot, who is still widely revered three years after he died, has proven a lucrative source of lottery inspiration and not just for former members of his movement, the Khmer Rouge."

< Gaming News