Singapore Pools was established as Singapore’s sole legal lottery operator in 1968 to offer a safe and trusted alternative to illegal betting syndicates, while channelling operating surpluses into community projects. Now a subsidiary of Tote Board – a statutory board under Ministry of Finance – this company continues to gain trust of Singaporeans through responsible gambling practices and community contributions.
Singapore Pools’ popular games include 4D, an exciting lottery-like lottery where players select four-digit numbers and place bets on various combinations and permutations of them. Other favorites are toto and e-sports which can be enjoyed both over the phone or online and allow customers from anywhere across Singapore to participate.
Singapore Pools’ aim to promote responsible gambling can be seen through their tools and features for customer management, such as safe play accounts that enable customers to set betting and deposit limits monthly, an Affordability Calculator to set appropriate playing limits, as well as educational and advocacy programs like their Responsible Gaming Education Programme that seek to stop problem gambling.
Singapore Pools’ cyber security infrastructure is top notch. Its data centres were constructed with high availability and resilience in mind, including disaster recovery/business continuity plans in place. Furthermore, in 2019 Singapore Pools received the NS Mark (Gold) accreditation to honor their dedication to National Service and Total Defence; their cyber-risk management programme detects threats instantly before mitigating them accordingly.
IT team of the company has also been proactive in finding new digital opportunities that enhance customer experience, such as Poolz Connect. This IP-based telephone betting system enables customers to place bets by speaking directly with call operators in a secure call center and having winnings automatically deposited into their bank accounts via automatic crediting of winnings from bets placed via Poolz Connect. Its success is credited to strong leadership support from top management as well as having a dedicated project team and clear requirements of what was required from all involved parties.
At the 15th Singapore HR Awards held in 2020, Singapore Pools’ agility and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic was recognized with awards in three categories – Employee Engagement, Digital Transformation, and Learning & Development. Their human capital development unit, Singapore Pools Academy also extended its learning resources to social service organisations and charities in their local community, in line with its dedication to upholding society.