Police targeting illegal lottery agents in statewide gambling crackdown

KUCHING: There will be no let up by police in their effort to eradicate illegal gambling, especially against agents selling illegal lottery tickets across the state.

State CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said over the past week, from April 24 to 30, police conducted 21 raids against illegal gambling and cockfighting that resulted in the arrest of 34 individuals.

“Those arrested were 21 males while the rest, females. They were aged between 17 and 71 years old.

“From the total raids, 20 were conducted against illegal lottery activities.

“Most raids were focused in Kuching areas,” he said in a statement on Monday.

The 20 illegal lottery raids resulted in the arrest of 23 individuals and seizure of cash amounting to RM 7,578.

Mobile phones, stationery, portable printers, betting slips and calculators were also seized.

Eleven raids were conducted in Kuching, Padawan and Kota Samarahan, while the remaining 10 were conducted in Miri ( 3), Betong (3), Sibu (1), Bau (1), Serian (1) and Saratok (1).

Apart from illegal 4D, one raid was conducted at a cockfighting pit on a field at Stutong, Kuching which resulted in the arrest of 11 individuals and seizure of various paraphernalia used for gambling.

All those arrested are being investigated for offences under the Common Gaming House Act 1953 and Prevention of Cruelty of Animals Ordinance 1962.

Stressing that operations against illegal gambling in the state will be an ongoing affair, Dev noted that the first quarter of the year has seen the police conduct 261 raids that resulted in the arrest of 853 people, as well as the seizure of 295 gambling machines and RM115,791 cash.