117 Chinese nationals arrested in online gambling centre bust
KUALA LUMPUR: Police detained 117 Chinese nationals, including 20 women, and a local man believed to be using Malaysia as their operation centre for online gambling activities at a luxury bungalow in Lorong Gurney, Off Jalan Tun Razak here.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim said all the suspects, aged between 20 and 40, were arrested in a raid under ‘Ops Dadu' at 3.50 pm on Friday.
“Police also seized two sets of computers, 118 laptops, 479 cell phones, three Internet modems, 154 sim cards, RM31,300 cash and Chinese currency amounting to 6,000 yuan,” he told reporters at a press conference here yesterday.
He said the syndicate's modus operandi was to advertise a website link that offers online gambling to people in China through the Wechat application but operating from Malaysia.
“Interested players then need to make payments using the Wechat Pay and Alipay bar codes.
“It is estimated that the gambling centre's activities netted around RM6 million per month which is about RM500,000 a day,” he said.
Mazlan said initial investigations revealed they had rented the 20-bedroom luxurious bungalow for RM30,000 a month to be used as an online gambling centre for the past six months.
Further investigations found that all the Chinese nationals had entered the country as tourists.
He said the syndicate was likely to have chosen Malaysia as a centre of operation because the punishment here was not as severe as compared to China.
All the suspects had been remanded for four days until today and police will apply for extension of the remand order to facilitate investigations under Section 4 (1) (c) of the Betting Act 1953 which provides for a fine of RM20,000 to RM200,000 and a jail term of up to five years upon conviction. - Bernama