Fight against gambling: responsibility of all, including NGOs: Ahmad Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR: The fight against gambling is not only the responsibility of the police or enforcement authorities but it is the commitment of all parties, including non governmental organisations (NGOs), said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said NGOs could play a role in combating gambling or any form of crime through various means, such as holding road shows, awareness of crime education through seminars, and expos to give the people an understanding of the dangers of gambling.
"NGOs are also the government's eyes and ears in the fight to curb gambling either online or offline," he said in a statement here today.
He was commenting on a report on the news portal The Malaysian Insight published today entitled, 'Consumerism and gambling, Putrajaya does not know the end point'.
Describing the report as narrow-minded, Ahmad Zahid said the news portal must understand that the scope for combating gambling was actually vast.
"It should be borne in mind that the way NGOs combat gambling is not the same as those adopted by PDRM (Royal Malaysia Police). They are still subjected to the law," he said.
Ahmad Zahid said all parties, especially NGOs must assist the government, especially security forces to combat the symptoms that could destroy the community and these efforts needed to be undertaken on a big scale at all levels.
"As the third major sector in a country, the government always listens to the views of NGOs that get information from their members and this is in line with the 'government knows all' is no longer true as stated by Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak)," he added. — Bernama