Last week we had the abrupt cancellation of shuttle buses from the heartland neighbourhoods to the two integrated resorts for fear that it might encourage more people to gamble. I think the casinos authority would take a similarly dim view of this 1960s practice of gambling for your food!

yg explains how, in the 1960s, you could engage in a game of luck with the hawker vendor for a chance to win a free meal, or even a scoop of ice cream:

in the 60s, we could gamble for our food. the ice-cream vendor offered us a chance to get a free ice-cream if we could draw out the coloured sticks in a certain order. there were two winning combinations for a complimentary ice-cream. he had ten coloured sticks – 5 red and 5 blue – in a narrow cylindrical container. we could either draw out the sticks in pairs or singly. when we got the combinations right, we won for ourselves a free ice-cream – a pontong or a scoop in a cone.

Yes, this was a practice where kids got to gamble with hawker vendors – but it wasn’t just limited to kids, adults got in on the action as well. It’s certainly a practice that we don’t see in the streets today – but read about it in
gambling to get food for free?