Some punters of the four-digit (4D) lottery and other games by Toto (tolong orang tipu orang), Magnum, Sweep and other counters in Malaysia bet more than their monthly income. These hardcore gamblers are actually the lifeline of these counters for without punters, these counters are out of business. Some elderly persons known to me passed on without striking any correct number despite betting almost every draw for decades. One of them, a favourite uncle, the late Langie anak Enjop of Mendas, Saratok who bid this borrowed life goodbye aged 92 in 1999, played Magnum without fail for at least 20 years prior to his demise.
His children and grandkids said he ‘puni 4D’ (one who never strikes 4D). Fortunately my late dad was not able to read or write and knew nothing about betting numbers – he only knew how to play ‘tui’ using the black elongated cards with Chinese characters. Compulsive gamblers bet a thousand ringgit or more per draw with some even winning millions whereas some are losing landed properties, homes and cash worth thousands of times the whole life earning of ordinary folks.
A former colleague bet up to two thousand ringgit on one counter alone per draw but he struck it big a few times, thereby making big money from his betting passion. In 1991, circa 19 November, I struck it big too and purchased a brand new Proton Saga Megavalve – all cash. The number 1191 belonged to a new 4WD vehicle in Julau town.
There were quite a number of interesting episodes and stories pertaining to purchases, claims and other 4D related matters over the last few decades. Back in 1979 when attached to then Maktab Perguruan Rajang (MPR), Bintangor, I was driving a battered 20-year-old Ford Cortina with a special plate number 7D5 purchased from a desperate friend for RM2,500. It was this vehicle that a colleague and I drove to town (Bintangor, then still known as Binatang) one Saturday afternoon.
We parked it next to an oranges stall manned by Ting Pek Khiing before he became a Tan Sri. From there we walked to a stall selling ‘Big Four’ 4-digit lottery where the girls at the counter had to write the numbers bet by punters. My colleague ‘Dom’ bet some numbers whereby I just bet my favourite number 1954.
His number came out exactly as bet but when he wanted to claim the RM150 (75 x2) winning on Sunday, the ticket could not be located which was so unfortunate. My sixth sense told me the ticket could be anywhere between Ting Pek Khiing’s oranges stall and the 4-digit lottery shop.
As such when I went to town on Monday afternoon the first place where I looked was the parking lot where we parked my Ford on Saturday. There I found some tickets lying face down.
One of them was truly Dom’s winning ticket (cannot remember the number). Thanks to good weather, the ticket was intact and I had no problem in claiming the RM150 from the counter. Dom was so elated when I gave him the money after which we enjoyed a bottle or two of beer at a canteen in front of the college.
While staying at a budget hotel in Sibu in 1983, I bet some numbers from an illegal source who was the hotel operator. The number I bet was 5895 but later written at a piece of ‘winning tickets slip’ for sale was 5985 and I jokingly told the operator my number came out winning ‘starter’ prize.
“Hari esok you boleh claim dari saya lah (tomorrow you can claim from me),” he said. I thought he was playing the joke back on me but the next day I was paid more than RM1,500 for my bet because at that time the amount for ‘starter’ prize was not fixed. It depended on the number of ‘horses’ for the race. Such number in horse racing is known as ‘starter’.
It was the number printed on the winning slip that was wrong. It should be 5895 which was the one that I bet. At another episode in Sibu, about ten years later, I was so ignorant about the time that only after purchasing the list of winning tickets slip at 6.40pm that I realised the draw for that day wasn’t even done yet. It was a sheer stupidity and just imagine one’s shock if one’s numbers were printed as winners there in. In an almost similar case a friend of mine was so utterly disappointed to find that his car number –which was his favourite bet – was put as first prize winner jokingly by his colleague in a fake winning slip.
It nearly caused him a cardiac arrest. In an unrelated case, my brother-in-law Fabian after purchasing 4-digit lottery tickets at Toto premises in Tabuan Jaya, Kuching in 1986 threw away the tickets but kept the slips that he used to purchase the tickets. So when one of the numbers came out winning ‘starter’ prize, he was shock to find the slips instead of the tickets in his wallet.
He then tried his luck by going to the premises at Tabuan Jaya and looked at the dustbins there. Lady luck was smiling on him as he was able to find the discarded ticket with the winning number that made him RM400 richer. The late wife of late Pemanca Jinggut of Miri bet a correct number with Magnum in 2002. She also purchased the same number with Toto – both RM5 bet.
Her daughter called from Miri – the mom and dad were in Kuching then – that her number came out as ‘consolation prize’ winner in 4D.
Actually 4D is a common term for 4-digit number in all the Malaysian counters. The number came out in Magnum but the careless mom threw the Magnum ticket and kept the Toto ticket, using it to claim at Toto and was shocked when the counter girl said no such number came out as a winner in Toto. When she checked with Magnum, she found out that the number was listed as a winner but she had thrown away the winning ticket.
A colleague of my brother in JKR Saratok in the early 90s found out that he had thrown a winning ticket to the rubbish bin that had been emptied by the garbage truck that had made a trip to the Saratok rubbish dump at Perabun, about 10 kilometres from town but only 4km from their camp at Ulu Krian Road. He and a friend drove to Perabun and tried their luck digging for the ticket whose prize was RM180.
Finally at around 1am Sunday he and the friend managed to locate the ticket and rejoiced, yelling with the top of their voices thereafter. One punter in Sibu was given the ‘fake winning slip’ by one of his colleagues who wanted to play a bad joke on him by putting his car number as a second prize winner.
Without waiting for the real drawn winners, he purchased at least two crates of beer and a lot of frozen chicken wings to celebrate the so-called ‘good fortune’ but only to be terribly disappointed when the next morning’s newspapers carried different winning numbers for the draw.
Since betting my first number in 1975, I have had my highs and lows. My first win of RM300 was a shared bet with a Melanau beauty – now a Datin and a penghulu – who shared the same office with me in Info/Psywar Section, RASCOM Sibu. That was in March 1975 whereas my old IC number came out in late May the same year winning my goodself a small amount. Few weeks later I enrolled at USM, Penang.
In 1991, my friend in Julau purchased a brand new Nissan. His forgetful wife also tried her luck by betting RM1 on their car number and wrote 7819 instead of the real number 7189. Her husband bet 100 big and 50 small on 7189 but it was his forgetful other half who won RM2,360 as 7819 came out as first prize winner in Magnum. Punters usually derive inspirations from their properties such as residential lots, vehicles’ plate numbers, dreams and a lot of other things.
That is probably why these are called ‘forecast’ games. To get dreams interpretations, just go the Internet and search. I tried doing that once, namely after dreaming of a wine bottle – truly enough, the number 1885 (wine bottle) came out winning me a good amount. When the 4D jackpot was first introduced by Magnum and Toto a lot of tickets with one winning number were thrown away.
These punters were thinking that only a ticket with both numbers coming out won a prize but by now they should know that one number is also entitled to a small prize or a win. Some people are lucky to dream about numbers and got rewarded shortly later. I dreamt of one number and have spent quite a substantial sum on it for so many years but have not been lucky with that number thus far. For punters out there, these are just hoping games. One must have hopes to carry on for such hopes keep your games and spirit intact. That’s how I see it.
