Malaysia Police, MCMC on Alert to Prevent Euro 2012 Football Betting

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 (Bernama) -- Police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are taking the necessary steps to cripple syndicates involved in football betting during Euro 2012. Federal CID Secret Societies, Gambling and Vice, (D7) Principal Assistant Director Abdul Jalil Hassan said police were monitoring website and online social sites to monitor betting activities since the Euro 2012 football competition would start on Friday. "We are carrying out surveillance to curb betting activities with the help of MCMC," he told Bernama when contacted here on Wednesday. He was commenting on reports that claimed Federal CID Director Mohd Bakri Zinin as saying a number of VIPs in the country were either funding syndicates or the mastermind of football betting syndicates for Euro 2012. Mohd Bakri had said that based on initial information and surveillance through 'Ops Soga' that was launched on May 1, to curb football betting activities, VIPs had invested heavily in the operation that can rake in billions of Ringgit. Abdul Jalil said police had sought the cooperation from MCMC following success in curbing football betting activities during the 2010 World Cup. He added that police and MCMC had deviced an enforcement plan to prevent individuals or premises from accessing international websites involved in football betting activities. "MCMC will be responsible to monitor and prevent access to such websites. Once MCMC identifies any website involved in betting activities, such websites will be barred," he said adding that such websites existed in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. "Police faced difficulty to curb such activities at the grassroots level since the websites come from countries where football betting is legal." --BERNAMA