KUCHING: Police personnel from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police contingent had been relentless in carrying out raids against illegal gambling throughout Sarawak last week.
State CID chief, SAC Dato’ Dev Kumar Sree Shunmugam said for the past week, the state police conducted 34 raids against illegal gambling that resulted in the arrests of 75 individuals.
29 of the raids were against illegal 4D; three on cyber gambling, one on cockfighting and one on gambling in a public place.
The 29 raids on illegal 4D sellers resulted in the arrests of 35 individuals and seizure of cash amounting to RM9,685. Mobile phones, portable printers, betting slips, calculators and stationeries were also seized.
Apart from illegal 4D raids, three raids were conducted at cyber gambling and fish machine outlets in Miri that resulted in the arrests of 17 individuals and seizure of various gambling paraphernalia as well as cash amounting to RM741.
A raid at a cock-fighting pit in Sibu also saw 17 individuals arrested and seizure of various cockfighting paraphernalia as well as two live roosters.
Dev Kumar added that six individuals were arrested last Sunday after they were caught playing ‘holo’ in a public place in Dalat.
Of the 75 arrested including five foreigners, 54 were males while the rest were females. They were aged between 16 and 62 years old.
All those arrested are being investigated for offences under the Common Gaming House Act 1953 and Prevention to Cruelty of Animals Ordinance 1962.
Dev Kumar said since the aggressive raids started early this year, the gambling syndicates were almost crippled.
“The war against illegal gambling in Sarawak is far from over as illegal 4D outlets continue to operate despite numerous raids. We (police) will not falter and we will continue with our zero tolerance approach to illegal gambling,” he said.
