Police raid 15 illegal gambling premises Saturday, detain more than 100 people

KUALA LUMPUR: Police's Anti-Vice, Gambling and Secret Societies Division stormed 15 illegal gaming premises in Serdang on Saturday, where they detained 109 gamblers and 42 outlet caretakers.
The division's assistant director, SAC Datuk Rohaimi Md Isa, said the raids were made possible following numerous surveillance on the premises.
"These operators operating illegally. At least half of the operators misused their family entertainment licenses issued by the local councils. This is one of those disguise methods," he told theSun after finishing the raids.
Rohaimi added that these illegal gambling premises had also set-up hidden rooms where they ran their unscrupulous activities.
"Checks also found that these illegal gambling operators employed foreigners, tasked as caretakers. They were either Bangladeshis or Indonesians. The so-called foreigner caretakers wont even know about their owners whereabouts. They usually liaise with their immediate supervisors," he added.
He said these methods employed by illegal gambling operators are tricks meant by these "crooks" to slow investigations into their activities.
42 out of the 109 gamblers detained were foreigners, and 28 out of the 42 outlet caretakers detained were foreigners.
Also seized in the raids were 276 laptops, 36 simulator machines and RM12,936 in cash.
On Friday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said all police chiefs have been instructed to set up operation centres to gather information and complaints from the public on illegal gambling.
He said police faced many challenges in fighting illegal gambling, especially online gambling which uses overseas-based servers as well as mobile apps, making enforcement difficult.
Between January and June this year, federal police conducted 2,158 raids, leading to the seizure of 16,345 gambling machines and the arrest of 6,168 suspects relating to online gambling.