Police have arrested 23 people including three women.

They also seized 25 laptops, five units of money transfer devices and 55 mobile phones.

State deputy police chief Zaini Jass said the rented apartments were used as calling centres for punters to place their bets.

“When we stormed the apartments, some of them were busy entertaining requests for bets using laptops and mobile phones,” he told the media today.

He said only 17 of the detainees had valid passports while the rest did not have any travel documents.

On Oct 23, police arrested 80 Chinese nationals for alleged involvement in a Macau scam syndicate, which was said to have duped a local professional here of RM1.4 million.

Almost all of them were charged with illegal entry and overstaying in Sabah.

In the latest case, Zaini said the online gambling syndicate had only started operating a few days ago.

“Further probe found that they were actually targeting countrymen back in China.

“This is the first such case here in Sabah,” he said.