SINGAPORE - One evening in 2025, migrant worker Uddin Jashim decided to follow a friend who had been slipping out of their dormitory room every weekend.

The safety coordinator found himself at Marina Bay Sands (MBS)’ casino, where he watched his friend lose $2,500, equivalent to two months of his salary, in a single night.

The friend then borrowed $200 in cash from Uddin and asked him to book a taxi back to their dormitory after he gambled away that sum.

“We came back to our room around 4am. I slept, but he couldn’t,” Uddin, 32, recalled, adding that he did not gamble.

Out of concern, Uddin told his friend that he would tell his family if he continued gambling. Worried about causing them stress, his friend agreed to apply for self-exclusion.

The incident was a turning point for both men. Uddin has since helped six other migrant brothers stop gambling since he joined a programme to help his peers steer clear of gambling’s harms.

He is one of over 40 C.a.N Ambassadors in Singapore. They are migrant workers who volunteer to raise awareness about problematic gambling to their peers, identify early signs of harm and encourage them to apply for self-exclusion.

They have conducted 35 outreach sessions across dormitories since the programme began in 2022, as a joint initiative by the police’s Casino Crime Investigation Branch and the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG).

The programme is part of a broader effort to reach migrant workers about problem gambling. The NCPG began engaging this group in 2014.