Cops cripple illegal online gambling syndicate at two luxury Penang condos

GEORGE TOWN: Police have busted an illegal gambling syndicate and arrested 23 suspects including four women at two luxury condominiums at Persiaran Gurney and Jalan Kelawei.

State police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said two raids, codenamed Ops Dadu, were conducted by the state Criminal Investigation Department and Commercial Crime Investigation Department on Jan 7 at about 5.25pm.

"In the first raid, police raided a condominium unit in Persiaran Gurney and arrested 13 suspects including three women aged between 19 and 31 years old.

"The second raid saw police arresting 10 suspects including a woman aged between 16 and 27 at another condominium unit at Jalan Kelawei," he said.

Comm Mohd Shuhaily said police believed the two luxury condominium units were used by the syndicate as call centres for their online gambling activities.

He said all suspects were believed to be hired as agents to promote online gambling activities and were paid between RM1,500 and RM2,000 per month.

He said suspects also received a commission of 5% if their customers lost their bets in the online gambling game.

"We believe the syndicate has been active in promoting these online gambling activities since the middle of December last year and operate between noon and midnight every day.

"The syndicate is believed to lure their customers from Facebook,Whatsapp and Telegram applications before sharing the link to offer the online gambling service to their prospective customers," he said.

He said police also found that the gambling syndicate used a new modus operandi by drawing their own betting without using the usual method from a third party.

He said state police will liaise with Bukit Aman to see whether there are other syndicates using the same modus operandi.

He said during the raid police confiscated 85 units of mobile phones of various brands, 18 units of laptops, eight sets of computer desktop, 49 telco sim cards and two cars.

The cases will be investigated under Section 49 (1)(a), Section 4 (1)(b), Section 4 (1)(c), and Section 4 (1) (g) of the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953.