Malaysia is an Islamic country that does not encourage online gambling or illegal online lottery games. Malaysia has a licensed lottery system and one licensed land based casino in Resorts World Genting which is run by Genting Malaysia Bhd.
More Than 2,000 People Arrested
The authorities decided to carry out a two week sting operation from Sep 22 to Oct 5 in order to crackdown on illegal online casino activities and illegal lottery games. The sting operation turned out to be very successful with over 2,000 individuals arrested. The sting saw more than 1,700 raids take place during these two weeks.
Most of those arrested were men (1,599) and (312) women who were between 20 and 60 years old. The authorities said that MYR513,000 was seized which was used for illegal online gambling activities and MYR680,000 was seized which was used for illegal online lottery games.
A total of 382 investigative reports concerning these arrests were processed as of Oct 5 and court charges were made for violations to the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953. There are still another 1,300 plus investigation reports that are waiting to be processed.
These arrests will send a strong message to Malaysians to think twice before engaging in illegal lottery or online gambling activities.
