Post date: Nov 30, 2014 7:53:26 AM
BY HARIZ MOHD AND SARAH RAHIM - 3 NOVEMBER 2014
KUALA LUMPUR: District and station police chiefs in the city have been ordered to weed out illegal gambling activities in their areas of jurisdiction by Nov 14, or face a 24-hour transfer as punishment.
The order, issued by city police deputy chief Datuk Law Hong Soon, will see a special team consisting officers from the Standard Compliance and Integrity Department (SCID) conducting checks to ensure that it is carried out.
Law said he had, during a meeting on Oct 14, gave the officers a month to conduct operations and clear the city from illegal gambling dens.
"During the meeting attended by all of the city's district police chiefs and city Anti-Vice, Gambling and Secret Societies Division (D7) chief, the officers have been ordered to go all out in raiding illegal gambling premises here.
"The district and station chiefs will then have to make a declaration that their areas are free of the illegal activities, and a monitoring team consisting officers from the city and federal headquarters' SCID will perform checks to ensure no such activities continue to exist in the city," he said in a statement yesterday.
Should the district or station chiefs failed in carrying out the order, they will face disciplinary action including being slapped with a 24-hour transfer notice, he said.
Since January, the city police have conducted 10,666 raids on illegal gambling dens, here which saw 2,697 people arrested, and the seizure of 20,845 gaming machines and cash totalling RM193,576.
Law said the rate of operation success recorded during the period had exceeded last year's by over 40 per cent.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi said the 172 illegal gambling websites that were recently identified have been temporarily blocked by the commission.
"However, the banning of these websites would not be permanent. Many new websites or clone websites might makes it way into the internet," he said, adding that more illegal gambling websites were expected to be blocked as well.
Mohamed Sharil was speaking at the launch of the “Exploring the Digital Landscape in Malaysia” report issued by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Voices of Youth and the Communication Section of UNICEF Malaysia.
He urged for users to be aware of such illegal websites as they were unsafe.
"Credit card information may be harvested to be used for fraudulent activities. Children may also use their parents credit card to gamble thinking that its a harmless game," he said, adding such incidents could potentially destroy families.
On another matter, Mohamed Sharil said the MCMC was currently discussing with the Education Ministry to introduce a co-curriculum activity that focuses on online safety and another programme called 'Klik Dengan Bijak' (Click Wisely).