Sabah deputy police commissioner Razarudin Husain denied they were resting on their laurels.
In fact, police have been making arrests and seizing illegal gambling paraphernalia every week throughout the state, he said.
“We handle between six and eight cases each week, arresting either one or two suspects in each case.
“Sabah CID chief Datuk Salehhudin Abdul Rahman and his team are very proactive and closely monitoring the activities,” he told FMT.
Razarudin said this in response to a call for heightened efforts by the authorities to curb illegal gambling in Sabah by TC Goh, the president of Everise Ventures Sdn Bhd, which manages Sandakan Turf Club, one of the legitimate 4D lottery businesses in the state.
Goh had told the media that unlicensed gambling activities had resulted in poor revenues for legal 4D lottery operations, with his company recording a drop of more than 50% in sales over the past three years due to illegal gambling.
He said this meant a loss in taxable income for the government from licensed 4D operators.
While illegal bookies are relying on technology such as booking services through mobile phones and even online platforms, he said licensed operators were still stuck to doing things the conventional way because of the restrictions imposed by the authorities on legitimate licence holders.
He added this meant punters would rather place their bets online or through phones conveniently with illegal bookies instead of going to valid outlets and queuing up to buy the numbers they wanted.
Razarudin said police had prosecuted about 60% of cases involving illegal gambling in court thus far.
“We hold meetings every two weeks to ensure all cases involving illegal gambling brought to court are handled effectively,” he said.
Penampang PKR division chief Kenny Chua agreed with Goh that illegal bookies were using telecommunication technology to thrive. He said illegal 4D lottery operations were very much still a problem in the district.
“From our observations, illegal cyber gambling has stopped but illegal 4D activities are ongoing.
“The illegal operators mainly use handphone shops as a front. It’s tough to detect these bookies because they use mobile phones to accept bets.
“Even if police manage to trace them through a phone number, they will just throw away that phone because they have many other numbers.”
Chua said his team had been regularly monitoring these activities and identified several members of these groups.
“We posed as buyers but they won’t sell to us because they know us. We will continue our observations and provide information we obtain to the authorities,” he said.
The outlets he mentioned were located, among others, in Donggongon town in Penampang and the Kepayan township here.
In December last year, Sabah police commissioner Ramli Din said some sundry shops in the state capital were offering 4D lottery services illegally.
That same month, 22 people, aged between 15 and 42, were rounded up in a joint operation by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The syndicates are using small thermal printers to print betting slips, which are sent via SMS or social media messaging services, Ramli said.
Last year, Sabah police shipped to Selangor more than 10 tonnes of computers and electronic equipment to be disposed of safely. These had been seized in illegal gambling raids across the state since 2006.
Ramli said these items were worth more than RM1 million.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/06/06/4d-racket-using-winning-numbers-from-past/