GEORGE TOWN, May 22 — Police have frozen a total of 150 mule accounts used for online gambling in Penang, involving RM32 million between 2023 and this year.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the police have conducted Ops Dadu continuously to bust illegal gambling and scam syndicates.
“There were 2,681 arrests by the police involving 2,337 online gambling cases with 1,390 charges in court in 2023 and 1,810 arrests involving 1,510 cases with 1,084 charges in court in 2024,” he said in reply to a question by Joseph Ng Soon Siang (DAP - Air Itam) at the state legislative assembly on the online gambling and scam cases in Penang.
He added that this year, up to March, a total of 542 arrests were made involving 485 cases, while 255 charges in court were filed.
Chow said the federal government has amended the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 to introduce stronger penalties against cybercrimes, including online gambling and digital scams.
“The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has blocked thousands of online gambling sites,” he said.
He noted that 6,381 sites were blocked between 2020 and 2022.
“MCMC has also terminated over 212,000 phone lines that were used to send spam related to gambling and scams,” he said.
He said the police are working with MCMC, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), and local governments to conduct joint raids and operations.
He added that electricity and water supplies were also cut off at premises involved in illegal gambling activities.
“The government has conducted awareness programmes through various platforms to educate the public on the dangers of online gambling and cyber scams,” he said.
He said similar awareness programmes were also implemented in schools to educate students on this matter.
He acknowledged challenges in dismantling these online gambling syndicates, as they use multi-layered structures to avoid detection and enforcement action.
“The government is urging social media platforms to invest in AI to speed up the process of identifying and removing illegal gambling sites,” he said.
He added that compulsory licensing for social media platforms was aimed at increasing accountability and easing enforcement action against illegal content.
