Singapore Firms Used in Overseas Gambling Site’s World Cup Betting Flow

A gambling website based overseas has been taking illegal bets on the FIFA World Cup matches from punters in Singapore, with payments and payouts routed through local firms via PayNow. The site, GemBet, uses Singapore-specific URLs and appears to direct local users into a payment structure that relies on 3 companies registered this year.

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Local Companies Used For Payments

The Straits Times found that deposits for bets and payouts for wins are being channelled through 3 Singapore companies registered in 2026. The firms include a manpower contracting service incorporated on March 3, a cleaning services company registered on April 29, and a wholesale trading firm incorporated on May 29.

Punters who access GemBet through local URLs are redirected to its main website. After registering, they are required to create a digital wallet, where deposits can be made using cryptocurrencies and PayNow. Those choosing PayNow are then directed to transfer money through one of the 3 Singapore companies, while bets are taken out of the wallet.

Checks against the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records show that the companies are registered to Housing Board residential units. The Straits Times visited all 3 addresses on July 15 and found people living at the units, but the responses at each location suggested little visible connection between the premises and the businesses listed there.

GemBet’s Online Presence

On the company’s website and its social media accounts, GemBet claims that it is an indigenous sports gambling entity in Singapore, which was founded in 2020 and then shifted to Malaysia in 2022.

The platform also claims links to high-profile European football clubs. It says it is the official Southeast Asian betting partner for Spanish club Athletic Bilbao, and it features AC Milan star Luka Modric as its brand ambassador.

GemBet does not hide that it is targeting local punters. The site includes YouTube tips on how funds can be deposited using DBS Bank accounts, while its Facebook account was created on Jan 13. Its X account, created in December 2022, shows a location tag of the United Arab Emirates, while its connection is made via the Apple App Store in Bulgaria.

The platform is operated by Grand Complications NV, an offshore entity incorporated in Curacao. Corporate intelligence checks showed that the firm has registered more than 1,900 domain names over the years, many of them variations of the term GemBet. One domain was registered only a day before the World Cup opening match on June 11.

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Customer Service Claims

When The Straits Times posed as a would-be punter through GemBet’s live chat, a customer service operator said the platform is legal for users in the Republic. The operator also said the Singapore-registered businesses receiving PayNow payments on the platform’s behalf were legitimate and affiliated with GemBet.

However, the operator did not provide further details on the relationship between the firms and the gambling site. Questions about the number of Singapore-based gamblers using the platform and the amount of money originating from the city-state were also not answered, with the operator describing those figures as confidential and internal details.

After the exchange, the platform suspended the account created by The Straits Times.

Enforcement And Penalties

Online traffic monitoring site Semrush showed close to 50,000 global visits to GemBet’s website in June. The scale of that traffic comes as Singapore continues to enforce tough penalties against unlawful gambling services and their users.

A record $12.7 billion was spent on lottery, sports betting, and horse racing in the financial year 2024/2025 through Singapore Pools. By contrast, bets placed on websites like GemBet are illegal and carry heavy penalties.

Any individual who places a wager via a prohibited gambling system shall be required to pay a fine that shall not exceed $10,000 or be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or both. Individuals who have been adjudicated for the offense of establishing or assisting in operating prohibited gambling systems will be penalized, to a maximum fine of $500,000, and a seven-year imprisonment.

Over 3,400 prohibited gambling websites, over 260 bank accounts and more than $36 million worth of financial transactions pertaining to prohibited remote gambling systems were barred by the Gambling Regulatory Authority, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Social and Family Development on June 9. 17 individuals were also arrested in an island-wide crackdown on July 6 against unlawful remote gambling, where over $720,000 worth of cash was seized along with mobile phones, computers, and other gambling paraphernalia.

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Source: Asia One