72 nabbed in illegal gambling raids in Sarawak

KUCHING: The police have detained 72 people in connection with illegal gambling activities in 46 raids statewide since last week.

The suspects comprise 56 men and 16 women, the oldest being a septuagenarian. Nine of them are foreigners.

Sarawak CID chief, Datuk Dev Kumar M. M. Sree Shunmugam said 40 of the raids were related to illegal character lottery, three were linked to online gambling and the rest involved gambling in a public place.

"RM37,722 was seized from the suspects during the raids, along with 20 computers and 16 tablets which were used for online gambling," he said in a statement here today.

Dev Kumar said the raids were conducted since last Monday, following a recent directive from Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mazlan Mansor to district police chiefs to rid the districts of gambling activities.

Six raids involved the Miri police, Kuching (five), CID headquarters (four), followed by raids in Padawan, Sibu, Bintulu, Serian, Limbang and Lawas, among others. — Bernama