Johor govt takes measures to curb illegal gambling dens

ISKANDAR PUTERI: Johor has taken proactive measures to curb the mushrooming of illegal gambling machine activities this year, the Johor Housing and Local Government committee chairman Datuk Abdul Latif Bandi told the Johor state assembly today.
In his winding up speech, he said, the state government has also set up a state-level taskforce committee in April this year headed by State Secretary Datuk Ismail Karim.
For the first 10 months of this year, he said, police seized 15,987 computerised illegal gambling machines, and cash RM510,591.
He added police also checked 1,740 gambling premises of which 116 were found to have violated the law by committing various offences including running the business without valid licence. Police also arrested 5,686 suspects with 645 take to court.
Abdul Latif said the gambling operators and syndicates were also found to have abused the Family Entertainment Centre to carry out their illegal gambling activities to avert being caught by police.
In view of this, he added, that the state government have stopped renewing the licences of Family Entertainment Centre except for AEON Fantacy, Legoland, Angry Bird and Hello Kitty.
He said, state government had issued 33 Family Entertainment Center licenses till November this year – 12 for Johor Baru City Council, 18 for Johor Bahru Central Municipal Council (MPJBT) , one each for Kluang Municipal Council, Pasir Gudang Municipal Council and Kota Tinggi Municipal Council respectively.
Outside at the lobby, Johor opposition leader Gan Peck Cheng (DAP-Penggaram) expressed disappointment with the state government for not clamping down hard on illegal gambling machine activities.