More than 1,200 informants in the Malaysian state of Sarawak have offered the state police to help it tackle illegal gambling in the region.
The informants in question are members of the public who have been willing to participate in the prevention of problem gambling in Sarawak and have volunteered to respond to the anti-gambling hotline in the state.
Senior assistant commissioner Dennis Leong, who currently heads the Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department, said that the local police have been grateful to these people for their readiness to take part in the fight against illegal gambling. The above-mentioned anti-gambling hotline was established by the Sarawak police in order to allow citizens to play a direct role in the process. He further called for the local community to be proactive and urged people to call the hotline number in case they had information about illegal gambling activities in the region.
He confirmed the information that so far a total of 1,209 people had provided Sarawak police with details about illegal gambling in the state through the hotline. SAC Leong further revealed that the police had carried out raids based on the information provided by these people, with these raids ending up with the arrest of more than 970 people.
More than 2,040 Police Raids Carried out in Sarawak State
The hotline center is hosted at the Sarawak police headquarters in Kuching and is currently operated by the State Police D7uUnit. Residents who use the hotline to provide details about illegal gambling rings in the state are guaranteed that their identity will be kept strictly confidential.
SAC Leong shared that competent authorities, including the police, should be effective in stopping illegal gambling dens from operating and added that the police has also been targeting those who offer online gambling operations, as well as all other forms of illegal public gaming.
According to information provided by SAC Leong, Sarawak police have arrested a total of 2,761 people under allegations of illegal gambling on the territory of the state. The chief of the Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department further revealed that an overall number of 2,046 police raids were carried out throughout the state districts, with over RM760,000 being confiscated from public gambling dens in the process.
In addition, some drastic measures such as cutting off electricity supply to premises alleged of acting as fronts for illegal gambling have been taken. So far, a total of 159 such premises have been affected by the power supply stoppage. Apart from that, the police continue the public raids aimed at tackling public gambling in the state.
As CasinoGamesPro has previously reported, Malaysian authorities have been aimed at eliminating illegal gambling activities in the country since the beginning of 2018. Earlier this year, they have rolled out a report, according to which almost 12,500 police operations against both retail and online operation have been conducted in the country over the past ten months. The police raids are aimed to cover the territory of the entire country and eliminate illegal gambling in order to make sure that local residents are well-protected against possible gambling-related harm.
