Kuala Lumpur police recently collaborated with Wangsa Maju police district to raid a high-rise office building on Jalan Tun Razak in the city center, successfully dismantling an illegal online gambling call center targeting gamblers in China, arresting a total of 30 people including a Chinese supervisor.
The raid was launched at 11:30 AM on May 28, targeting a unit on the 19th floor of the office building. The gambling syndicate operated discreetly, with their office located next to a law firm, hidden within a normal commercial building for a long time.
At the scene, police arrested 23 Chinese men, 6 Chinese women, and 1 Chinese man, aged between 20 and 27. During the operation, 30 computers, 60 mobile phones, two network routers, access cards, and various communication devices were seized. Investigations revealed that the center masqueraded as a "customer service center," but actually recruited gamblers from within China to participate in online gambling through social media platforms.
The police noted that the organization had been operating for about two months. Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Datuk Rusdi stated at a press conference that preliminary intelligence indicated that the gambling network was remotely controlled by a Chinese man still at large, while another arrested Chinese was suspected to be the on-site supervisor, responsible for daily operations.
According to police observations, during the raid, many "customer service staff" were interacting with gamblers on their computers and quickly lowered their heads to avoid law enforcement officers and media cameras, appearing panicked. The police believe that the syndicate specifically targeted the Chinese gambling market, choosing to set up in Malaysia to evade crackdowns within China.
Currently, the case is being investigated under Section 4(1)(g) of the 1953 Open House Gambling Act, and all suspects have been taken to the Wangsa Maju police district headquarters for questioning. The police stated that the next steps would include continuing to trace the group's mastermind, funding, and underlying network, while also enhancing the scrutiny and monitoring of suspicious units in downtown office buildings to prevent such cross-border gambling platforms from re-emerging in Malaysia.
