Police raids result in arrests and seizures
Recent news from Malaysia involve a report of another Malaysian police anti-illegal gambling action, this time in the Tangkak area, where they conducted raids on five cyber cafes that were providing illegal online gambling for customers.
According to Police Chief Supt Harun Idris, the operation was ongoing for three days, during which 170 computers and a large amount of cash and other evidence had been seized.
It was specified by the police spokesman: “We noted that the operators had used special computer chips to change their video games into gambling games. However, we managed to detect their activities and detained the operators.”
In related news, a statement arrived from Malaysian problem gambler counselor that the age of gamblers - and in some cases bookies – is getting younger; he also added that such a development was linked to the availability of gambling around the world on the internet.
This is a rather worrying trend, assessed David Chiang, president of the Gamblers Rehab Centre Malaysia, as there are cases of problem gamblers at the age of 15. Therefore, he advised parents to be vigilant on internet and credit card use, as the children may deceive them.
“Parents too easily believe them because the Internet is such a huge part of the lifestyle of youth today,” Chiang said, adding that a new and growing threat was the rise of online credit card brokers, who provided their credit cards to under-aged gamblers to use for a fee.
He explained: “If the teenage gambler loses the credit, the broker would then pay the online casino first with a credit card. The teenager has to repay the broker in cash.”
