Working hard to nip habit in the bud

KUALA LUMPUR: If football gambling companies register their businesses in countries where betting is legal, why is it a crime here? It is a crime because the bookies and runners -- the parties that actually scamper around picking up the bets and servicing the clients -- are in Malaysia.

In fact, what most local bookies do is simply to take cash from their customers and bet using their own credit cards

"When it comes to Internet gambling, it is not an offence on the part of the syndicate if the server and operation is outside the country.

"It is only a crime if the server or the operation, or both, are here," said police cyber and multimedia crime specialist Deputy Superintendent Victor Sanjos.

Worse than the criminal aspects of it are the social ramifications involved with excessive gambling.

It is an offence for people in Malaysia to gamble on online football games, but there are some who argue that everyone has the right to gamble online.

But, argued Sanjos, what about when these "rights" cause harm to the community?

"If a bunch of schoolchildren get into it, where will they get their money from? Maybe they will steal their parents' credit cards. Maybe they will steal money, or extort money from their schoolmates to bet through bookies.

"This, if not nipped in the bud, has the potential to become a community problem because of the knock-on effects that come with excessive gambling."

Cyber-forensic analyst and investigator Melvin said he had seen people's lives destroyed due to excessive gambling.

"Syndicates often tie up with loan sharks, and are sometimes loan sharks themselves. When people lose their money, the syndicate will give them, for example, RM10,000 credit.

"The desperate gamblers will bet and lose that, too, and will end up owing the RM10,000 as well as the mammoth interest on it."