Two S'porean arrested in JB for taking $4m in bets
By Rennie Whang
The New Paper
Friday, Jun 22, 2012
Two Singaporeans have been nabbed in Johor Baru for allegedly taking in about RM10 million (S$4 million) in bets on Euro 2012 football matches, illegal 4-D numbers and horse racing.
The duo, who are in their 30s, were arrested at about 6pm on Saturday inside a store at Jalan Dato Abdullah Tahir.
The location, about 10 minutes from the Woodlands Checkpoint, is believed to be their operations centre.
The punters, who included Malaysians and foreigners, are believed to have bet about RM6 million on football, RM2 million on 4-D and another RM2 million on horse racing.
The police seized 23 betting slips for Euro 2012 and 88 slips for 4-D bets, two laptops, six computer monitors, two computer central processing units, four telephones, four mobile phones, two recorders, four wireless routers and a printer.
This was the third of four gambling syndicates busted by the Johor police between Thursday andSunday.
The four syndicates had taken in about RM14 million in football bets.
Under investigation
The Singaporeans are in remand until today and are under investigation for abusing their social visit passes.
When contacted by The New Paper, the Johor police declined to reveal more details as the case is under investigation.
Under the Common Gaming House Act 1953 in Malaysia, the men, if convicted, can be fined between RM20,000 and RM200,000, and jailed up to five years.
An industry insider told The New Paper that the suspects were probably from middle management.
He said: "A betting syndicate operates in a pyramid system. The man at the top opens a number of betting accounts, and these holders, in turn, can spawn off dozens more and so on.
"The number of active betting accounts can run to the hundreds; a bookie nearer to the bottom of the pyramid would have about 40 accounts."
He added that during the Euro, the percentage increase in bets could be more than 25 per cent, as many punters only bet during major tournaments.
"But the increase is not that great as people are betting on the English Premier League, Champions League, Malaysia Cup and S-League anyway."
This article was first published in The New Paper.
