It just way too hard to believe.. It was reported that he played $400,000 per hand..

Who in S'pore earns $400,000 a year?? The Elite few.. Surely such $$ can be put to better use like stocks !

I love baccarat too.. But i know my limits.. The joke is he wants to sue the casino for his losses.. Makes no sense to blame ppl for your loss !?

The presence of gaming testing laboratories in Singapore will also attract other gaming machine manufacturers to set up operations here, said Mr Kinsman.

This is  RED HERRING

red herring

Looking for locals

S’poreans just won’t take cleaning jobs: HR manager

Letter from Grace Seow Mei Ying

AS A human resource manager in an SME (small/medium-sized enterprise) offering premium indoor hygiene services, I find it very challenging to recruit locals as professionally-trained cleaning specialists, despite offering very attractive salary packages and rewarding career paths.

All possible avenues have been tried to attract local talent — through newspaper advertisements, recruitment agencies, participating in job fairs together with the Community Development Councils, and so on — but the results have been disappointing.

In order to deliver on incoming customers’ orders, cleaning companies need to recruit staff from China and Malaysia, who are willing to accept the physically-taxing, long working hours.

My recruitment challenges do not end here. Recent measures by the Government to tweak the foreign worker levy have made it more difficult for me to employ more foreign workers.

Other local cleaning companies’ HR managers, whom I have spoken to, face the same recruitment predicament and are experiencing high turnover rates among Singaporean staff.

Why are locals not interested in this job sector?

Common reasons given are long working hours and the physical nature of the job.

While the Government’s controls on foreign labour are warmly welcomed as a means to moderate job competition, companies that rely heavily on foreign workers — not by choice — are the ones that suffer.

The year-end cleaning season is approaching but without an adequate operation, how would cleaning companies deliver their services if there is no manpower to recruit?

As I am not the only HR manager facing this problem, any assistance or advice from the relevant Government bodies would be helpful.

BUST    becOmes

MULTI-BAGGER  BUST

BOOM  becOmes

MULTI-BAGGER  BOOM

The smart shopper

From the ashes of the economic meltdown comes a new breed of judicious shoppers

Peter Yeo

peteryeo@mediacorp.com.sg

UNLIKE for some, the economic downturn last year was a good thing for Ms Nicole Chiang. The 36-year-old owner of Edge Arumi, a fashion boutique, had liquidated some assets before the slide and was able to afford more with less as desperate businesses slashed prices, which translated to more travel and shopping opportunities.

But the economic downturn has done more than just provide the prudent with a higher purchasing power. It has created a new breed of shoppers, one who is more judicious with their spending.

Director of communications insights, Asia Pacific, Omnicom Media Group, Mr Guy Hearn, said: “Even though the economy has bounced back well in Singapore, consumers are still buying cautiously.

Not only must they like an item, or think it’s the best, but they must also believe that it’s the smart thing to do to.

“The Internet has helped this, making it easier for consumers to research and review their purchases. Research has shown that consumers not only trust the opinions of their friends and family — as might be expected — but they are also very likely to trust people they don’t know, such as comments and reviews that they read on online forums, social networking sites and message boards”.

However, Mr Hearn disagreed with the strategies of many retailers who slashed prices.

“There is a danger in doing this as it teaches shoppers to ignore brand values and to focus on price. Singaporeans are always interested in a bargain, that’s nothing new, but the discounting and promotions during the recession led consumers to place even more emphasis on price.

“There are many ways to help a consumer feel smart other than through discounting, for example through bundling, longer guarantees, service packs, helping them to maximise their usage of the product, saving them time etc”, he said.

Mr Dan Gibson, managing director, Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, offered:

“Singaporean shoppers tend to be more conservative, and research has shown that they’re more interested in reliability, brands that have stood the test of time.

Consumers will definitely be asking around and doing their own research before buying, and they would turn to the Internet to make sure they’re getting the best value.

“There’s a growing role for marketers and advertising agencies to use digital marketing to supplement traditional media (because people are still reading the papers and watching the TV) for a multi-discipline engagement with their target audience. So an integrated communication strategy that can tap on the strengths of both online and traditional media to enable brands to reach the right audiences is key.”

Mr Jef Tan, managing partner of Tonic Asia, a creative agency, quipped: “As the world becomes more connected, we become more discerning with our purchases.

“Gone are the days where I buy a product only to have friends tell me it’s a bad investment. Now, I check the value before I buy.”