Singapore, a country whose government policies have always been labelled as conservative, is the first country in Asia to boldly legalise soccer betting on local matches in 1999 and recently passed a law for betting on the World Cup matches. In Malaysia, police are targeting Hong Kong bookmakers who have set up shop in the mainly Muslim country. Bets are normally collected in Malaysian coffee shops or pubs and this can run up as much as US$3000 per match. In accordance with the survey by Bangkok's Assumption University, Thailand's 63 million population would have a larger illegal bet total of around US$210 million than Malaysia during the World Cup tournament.