30/04/2026
When there's no picture, sound has to do everything.
A Gambler's Bluff is a true-crime audio drama produced by Protagonist by M for CNA — the story of Chia Teck Leng, a finance manager at Asia Pacific Breweries who swindled over $100 million from banks to fund a gambling addiction. The highest sentence for white-collar crime in Singapore's history.
We did the full audio post — sound design, Foley, dialogue editing, mix, music.
The challenge with audio-only storytelling is that there's no visual fallback. The listener has to know exactly who they're listening to, where they are, and when — just from sound.
A Gambler's Bluff moves across three distinct worlds: Xander's podcast, present-day interviews, and reenactments from Chia Teck Leng's point of view. To keep these worlds separate and consistent, I built three processing chains — three separate busses, each with its own sonic signature. Every sound was routed to the chain that matched its world.
That way, the moment the soundscape shifts, the listener feels it — even before they consciously register what's changed.
It's out now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and meListen.
