SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014 JAMADA ALAWWAL 10, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Mexico confirms Islamists free Black Twitter Bulls beat killing of ‘dead’ 13 nuns in rare growing into Heat in OT; drug kingpin7 prisoner13 swap online27 force Mavs20 roll Games of chance: Illicit Max 28º Min 20º lotto popular in Kuwait High Tide 09:18 & 18:52 Low Tide Underground betting, gambling flourishing 02:37 & 13:27 40 PAGES NO: 16101 150 FILS By Ben Garcia the lotto agents. Players often use birth- conspiracy theories days, anniversaries and other important KUWAIT: The 1st and the 16th of every dates in the calendar as their numbers of month are exciting days for Jennifer and choice. Others pick numbers randomly, Enlighten us Jayanti. They look forward to them all from street signs or bus numbers or TV month long, hoping and praying that commercials. one day their number will hit. Like many “I collect numbers from anything expats within the South Asian and under the sun. I remember I was riding in Filipino communities in Kuwait, the two the bus one time, I saw some numbers expats play Thai lotto regularly though written on the wall of the bus. I used gambling is illegal in Kuwait. Kuwait them on my betting pad, then the fol- By Badrya Darwish Times spoke with a few bettors to learn lowing day it landed in the lottery bet more about how it works and why they because it was the 15th of the month, play. the last day of betting. I gave that num- In Thai lottery, players are allowed to ber to my lottery agent and the next day, bet starting with 250 fils and can place I won. Imagine I won KD 400 for a KD 1 [email protected] higher bets. Staff in companies large and ticket,” Jennifer said. small will place bets, communicating For some gamblers, it’s a way to raise through a network of number runners. a bit of extra cash or entertainment, Bettors can also visit areas in Kuwait City something to look forward to. “The fol- t the time when the prime minister him- where large numbers of Asian expats lowing years and months, I won several self has announced a few months ago gather on weekend to buy lotto tickets times but smaller amounts like KD 80 or Athat Kuwait will face deficits in the budget and place their bets. Thai lotto has been KD 40, and there were times I won only and our life styles and expenditures have to active in Kuwait for more than a decade, KD 20,” Jennifer added. “I am alone rais- gradually be reduced, I read a story that the though because of its illegal status, the ing two children and if not because of Ministry of Electricity is going to put a tender to game is totally underground and those the lottery, I probably would give in to revamp the lights on the Gulf Road. The lighting who play can only come to learn of it other illegal activities - maybe prostitu- project is supposed to cover from Sharia’ Al through word of mouth. tion - because the salary I get from my Ta’awon street in Ras Salmiya to Seif Palace, Bettors will buy three combination work is really not enough, I need extra opposite Sharq area -which is around 29 kilome- A sample of a lottery tip in Thailand from the website. numbers like 315, 675, 712 and 967 from Continued on Page 13 ters, according to the report. The report mentioned that the ministry has budgeted KD5 million for the project which will take an estimated five years to accomplish. Kuwait’s budget Wow! KD5 million to light the Gulf Road at the time when we are supposed to tighten our belts and cut budgets everywhere and Kuwaitis are spending up 8% threatened with deficits by 2020 - and on top of that five years to finish it? Why? Is this a mega project of bridges and flyovers or maybe a new IMF warns on subsidies modern airport or a bridge to connect Kuwait City to Failaika Island? Or is this a small part of a DUBAI: Kuwait’s government spending oil for around 94 percent of its income, new housing project? What’s going on in the rose 8 percent in the first 10 months of provides a generous cradle-to-grave wel- ministry? What kind of lights are they going to this fiscal year compared with the same fare system for its citizens. Senior govern- bring? Can they enlighten us? What kind of period the previous year but is still far ment officials have talked more frequent- street lights costs KD5 million? below its initial plan, preliminary finance ly about the risk to Kuwait’s budget sur- I understand, if they are lights and chande- ministry figures showed. The major oil plus. But it is unclear whether the cabi- liers for palaces brought from Paris or Vienna or exporter’s public expenditure reached net will be able to push through unpop- PUTRAJAYA: Members of a youth group hold roses as they pray for the missing somewhere else or - with gold plated, pure crys- KD10.58 billion ($37.6 billion) in the ular economic reforms such as reducing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 plane at a hotel in Putrajaya yesterday. — AFP tal, diamond encrusted with a sign name on it. I April-January period, up from KD9.78 bil- subsidies or halting wage growth. could understand and appreciate that. It might lion a year ago but little over half of its State revenue was KD26.63 billion in spending plan of KD21 billion for the fis- the April-January period, slightly below Malaysian plane even cost more. But this is only street lights for cal year ending in March. 27.00 billion in the same period last year 20 km. Street lights are supposed to meet cer- The OPEC member has been under- but well above a conservative full-year tain international standards of design and quali- shooting its budget plans as political plan of KD18.10 billion. Oil income stood mystery deepens ty. wrangling delays budget approvals in at KD24.76 billion. That put the fiscal sur- By the way guys, I checked and found out parliament and investment spending. plus for the 10 months at KD16.05 billion, that it costs around 1.5 million sterling pounds That together with high oil prices has or 31.3 percent of the country’s 2012 to revamp the lights and decorations of the helped the Kuwait to build large fiscal gross domestic product, according to a Possibility of hijacking? famous Oxford Street in the heart of London for buffers. But economists say it needs to Reuters calculation based on the latest KUALA LUMPUR: The disappearance brought down the Boeing 777-200ER the Christmas festivities. So I wonder, is the min- control public wage growth and other official data. of a Malaysian jetliner is an “unprece- airliner flying from Kuala Lumpur to istry going to decorate the Gulf Road similarly, non-investment spending in order to Kuwait penciled in a deficit of KD2.91 dented mystery”, the country’s civil avi- Beijing. perhaps for Ramadan?!!!! And is it only Gulf Road keep posting budget surpluses into the billion in its 2013/14 plan. A Reuters poll ation chief said yesterday, as a massive A senior police official said that peo- that interests them? Why not, if we have enough next decade. The International Monetary in January showed analysts forecast a fis- air and sea search now in its third day ple armed with explosives and carrying money let’s decorate and light up the whole of Fund warned in December that it will be cal surplus of 23.5 percent of GDP for failed to find any trace of the plane or false identity papers had tried to fly out Kuwait in an expensive way. It looks like the important for Kuwait to restrain the ris- 2013/14 and 20.7 percent for the next fis- 239 people on board. Dozens of ships of Kuala Lumpur in the past, and that Ministry of Electricity has a handsome surplus in ing public sector wage bill and subsidies cal year. Kuwait pledged $4 billion in aid and aircraft from 10 countries scoured current investigations were focused on because any sustained period of low oil to Egypt after the overthrow of Islamist the seas around Malaysia and south of two passengers who were on the miss- its budgets. If so, I suggest that we revamp our prices could reduce its budget surpluses. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in electricity power stations instead and prepare Vietnam, and questions mounted over ing plane with stolen passports. “We In October, the prime minister July, and quickly began disbursing that possible security lapses and whether a have stopped men with false or stolen for the hot season which is fast approaching to described the country’s welfare system aid. It was not clear whether the latest bomb or hijacking attempt could have Continued on Page 13 avoid electricity cuts and rationing. as unsustainable. Kuwait, which relies on data reflected that cost.— Reuters Saudi blasts Iraqi leader Kingdom accused of supporting terrorism RIYADH: Saudi Arabia slammed as “aggressive and irre- and support of the sectarian and exclusionary policies of sponsible” yesterday accusations by Iraqi Prime Minister his government,” the official charged.”It is clear that Nuri Al-Maliki that the kingdom was supporting global those statements are aimed at turning the facts on their terrorism. “The kingdom condemns the aggressive and head, and blaming others for the domestic failures of the irresponsible statements made by the Iraqi prime minis- Iraqi prime minister.” In an apparent allusion to Sunni- ter,” an unidentified official told the state SPA news dominated Saudi Arabia’s Shiite rival Iran, the official said agency.