JOHOR BARU, June 28 — The Johor police have arrested 51 suspected bookies involved in football betting on the Euro 2020 championship, following 40 raids in the state over the last two weeks.
It was learnt that the illegal betting not only involved wagering on the winning team or the number of goals, but also on in-game incidents such as the number of red cards shown.
Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the syndicate was detected using social media applications such as WhatsApp, WeChat and Telegram to find players and take bets.
He said the raids were carried out between June 10 and 26 under a Johor police contingent’s statewide operation called Ops Soga VIII.
“The suspects, all locals aged between 18 and 54, were remanded for between two and four days to assist in investigations.
“The total bets received by these bookies is about RM19.45 million, and investigators also seized cash totaling over RM35,000 during the raids,” said Ayob Khan.
He said this during a media conference at the Johor police contingent headquarters here today.
Ayob Khan said police also seized 71 mobile phones, two desktop computers, four laptops, three calculators, a modem, two routers, two printers, 17 SIM cards, two Euro 2020 schedules, and 15 betting records.
He said initial investigations revealed that the bookies would use 20 betting websites based abroad to make the bets.
Ayob Khan said among the bets included which team would win, which would get the first corner kick, and which would get a red card in a match.
“Usually, syndicates like this will operate in premises such as offices or shop houses, but due to the movement control order (MCO), they move their operations to residences,” he said.
Ayob Khan said the investigations were being conducted under Section 4 (1) (d), Section 6 (1) and Section 6 (3) of the Betting Act 1953.
He assured the public that police will continue to carry out similar operations.
