46 detained for illegal gambling over seven days
KUCHING: The state police continued to come down hard on all forms of illegal gambling activities in the state, especially against agents selling illegal public lottery tickets (illegal 4D).
State CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said over the past week, from April 10 to 16, the police conducted 26 raids against illegal gambling in the state that resulted in the arrests of 46 individuals.
He said that from the total raids, 21 were conducted against illegal 4D activities.
“Most of the raids targeted Kuching and Padawan areas,” he said in a statement made available yesterday.
The 21 illegal 4D raids resulted in the arrests of 29 individuals and seizure of cash amounting to RM4,338.
Mobile phones, portable printers, calculators and stationeries were also seized as exhibits.
Twelve raids were conducted in Kuching and five in Padawan.
Apart from illegal 4D, four raids were conducted against cyber gambling in Miri that resulted in the arrests of 11 individuals and the seizure of 52 computers used for online gambling.
“A raid was also conducted along the five- foot-way of a coffee shop in Kuching where six individuals were arrested for illegal off- course betting. Mobile phones, horse race schedules and betting slips were seized,” Dev added.
From the 46 individuals arrested, 24 were females aged between 15 and 57.
Dev also said that 12 raids were conducted in public places, mostly along five- foot ways, while eight raids were at shoplots, four at coffee shops and two at grocery shops.
All those arrested are being investigated for offences under the Common Gaming House Act 1953 and Betting Act 1953.
The ops against illegal gambling in the state will be ongoing, he emphasised.