JOHOR BARU: A family is living in fear after loan sharks continued harassing them despite the family paying more than RM350,000 to settle a relative’s gambling debts.
Unit trust consultant Chai Pin Kang, 37, said his younger brother developed a gambling addiction about two years ago and accumulated substantial debts in Malaysia and Singapore.
“My mother kept helping him because she believed each payment would solve the problem.
“At first, the amounts were relatively small, but the debts grew over time.
“In the end, our family paid more than RM350,000 to multiple loan sharks to clean up his mess,” he told a press conference at the Johor MCA office here on Friday (June 12).
Chai said the family only realised the full extent of his 36-year-old brother’s financial problems following a personal crisis in Singapore earlier this year.
“We were contacted after the incident and discovered that there were still many outstanding debts.
“We decided to help him settle them, genuinely believing it would bring an end to the problem.
“Unfortunately, we later discovered that he had borrowed more money from three other loan sharks, forcing us to settle the debts once again,” he said.
Chai said the family decided to stop paying his brother’s debts and lodged a police report after the harassment continued, including an incident in which red paint was splashed on their grandfather’s house.
“We have done everything we can to help him. We hope our experience will serve as a warning to other families facing similar situations,” he said, adding that his brother still lived with the family while working as an air-conditioning technician in Singapore.
Johor MCA Youth public services and complaints bureau chief Henry Mok, who arranged the press conference, said the case highlighted the growing dangers of online gambling and illegal moneylending, which often left entire families bearing the consequences of a gambler’s actions.
Mok called on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to intensify efforts to curb online gambling platforms and address the misuse and leakage of personal data.
When contacted, a police official confirmed that a report had been lodged over the case.
