KUALA LUMPUR: TWO illegal betting syndicates that raked in RM7.5 million daily for the 2014 World Cup have been busted.
Four suspects, aged between 20 and 41, were arrested after police raided the syndicates’ centre of operations at the One Stop Service Residence, Metro Pudu Complex and Menara Changkat Raja Chulan on Wednesday.
Bukit Aman Criminal Investigations Department deputy director Datuk Mazlan Mansor said the Special Task Force on Organised Crime (Stafoc) had been monitoring the syndicates for some time before moving in.
He said the syndicates operated in high security condominiums that restricted entry for non-residents and placed lookouts to raise the alarm in the event of a raid.
“However, we managed to move in and arrested the suspects, including a woman, at 4.30pm on Wednesday. They were in charge of handling betting on several football matches,” he said here yesterday.
He said the syndicate’s head managed the operations by delegating the physical operations to 1,500 sub-agents.
“Their role requires them to find potential customers by offering gambling credit limits of RM5,000 daily per person,” he said, adding they took bets from regular customers to ensure discretion.
Police seized three laptops, two tablets, two broadband modems and 30 log books containing records of football bets.
About 1½ hours later, police busted the other syndicate operating at Menara Changkat Raja Chulan.
“Initial investigations revealed that five floors of the building belonged to a gambling syndicate. We found 12 computer servers believed to be supporting a gambling website with networks in the Asia-Pacific region on one of the floor.
“The operators of these Internet betting accounts are based abroad.
“This is the first time we seized the servers that were used for gambling in the country,” said Mazlan.