KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 — The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has blocked access to 306 online gambling websites, since early this year after receiving applications from the police.
MCMC Digital and Media Literacy Division senior director Eneng Faridah Iskandar said the police had submitted the applications after those websites had been verified to contain criminal elements.
Last year, the commission had blocked 235 online gambling websites under the Common Gaming House Act 1953 (Act 289), she told Bernama in an exclusive interview here today.
“Our (MCMC) role is to help the police to ensure that access to the gambling websites are blocked by sending out instruction to the ISP (Internet service providers) to block access to the sites,” she said.
Eneng Faridah said although the commission was not responsible in terms of law enforcement, it was always ready to help the police if required, particularly in terms of forensic experts in combating online gambling.
“We have a digital forensics laboratory in Cyberjaya to assist investigations. If the police require further information on the seized items such as hard disks, they will ask for our help to conduct a forensic study on that items,” she said.
Eneng Faridah said investigations on any gambling activities both online and online were under the jurisdiction of the police and subjected to the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953, as well as the Pool Betting Act 1967.
She was commenting on a statement issued by the Muslim Consumers Association Malaysia (PPIM) recently, which had called for the MCMC to take more proactive measures against the growing number of online gambling syndicates.
PPIM chief activist Datuk Nadzim Johan was reported as saying the association had received hundreds of complaints from the public, since five months ago, that were lured into gambling via short message service (SMS) sent to their mobile phones.
Eneng Faridah however said, the commission has yet to receive any complaints on that matter, including from the PPIM itself.
She, therefore, advised the public to lodge complaints to telecommunications service providers if they encountered such a situation, apart from lodging reports to the police and the MCMC.
According to her, the telecommunications service providers should give their full cooperation to address the problem, since they know more about the SMS sender information.
In the meantime, Eneng Faridah asked the public from all walks of life to use Internet in a proper and controlled way.
It was reported last year, Malaysia had 20.1 million users with the highest number of users were aged between 15 and 34 years, she said.
According to a study conducted by MCMC last year, 88.2 per cent used the Internet to surf for information, 87.1 per cent (for surfing social networking sites) and 81.1 per cent used the Internet for communication by text purposes such as WhatsApp. — Bernama
