Malaysian police smash football betting ring

Malaysian police has recently crippled a football betting ring run by two brothers, the biggest one smashed by the city police here this year, local newspaper reported Wednesday.

With bets of up to 10,000 ringgit (2702 US dollars) on big matches, more than 5.2 million ringgit (1.41 million dollars) was raked each month, said the local English daily, New Straits Times.(NST).

When the Kuala Lumpur city police conducted the pre-dawn raid last Wednesday, the two brothers, aged 34 and 39, was caught red-handed. They were busy receiving bets over the telephone, email and their online websites at their house.

The brothers, however, managed to delete some information on their computers before the police entered the house.

Police seized three computers, four speakers, a laptop, a printer, two calculators, two television sets, two digital recorders, handphones and betting slips.

Checks revealed the two people had been operating in a room in the house for the past five years.

The operation had been set up primarily for the English Premier League, European Cup and World Cup. Police are investigating whether the two brothers were involved in other international football bookies and whether there were other gang members on the loose.

If found guilty, they will be subject to a fine of not less than 20,000 ringgit (5,405 dollars) and not more than 200,000 ringgit(54,054 dollars), and a jail term of not more than five years, said the NST report.

Source: Xinhua