Ongoing crackdown on illegal gambling sees 45 arrested over past week

KUCHING: Six taxi drivers were among 45 individuals arrested by police over the past week as part of efforts to weed out illegal gambling activities in the state.

State CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the cabbies were nabbed during a raid at a taxi stand at Khoo Peng Loong Road, which saw a deck of cards and cash amounting to RM185 seized.

He pointed out a total of 28 raids were carried out from Nov 13 to 19, of which 24 were against illegal lottery.

“The illegal lottery raids netted 28 individuals and saw cash amounting to RM4,836 seized.

"Mobile phones, portable printers, calculators, betting slips and stationeries were also seized," Dev Kumar said in a statement issued yesterday.

Another raid, he added, took place here at a counter offering cyber gambling reload services that resulted in the arrest of three individuals and seizure of four tablets.

"Two other raids were conducted at cock-fighting pits in Saratok and Tatau. The Saratok raid resulted in the arrest of five individuals and seizure of five live cockerels and gambling paraphernalia while the Tatau raid saw three arrests and seizure of five live cockerels and various gambling paraphernalia.”

Dev Kumar further revealed that 33 of the 45 arrested were males.