Malaysia Cyber Cafe's Put On Notice About Illegal Gambling

Cyber cafes have become the new outlet across the world for illegal gambling operations. The cafes are set up to sell Internet time, but authorities have found that many of these cafes are selling much more than time.

In Malaysia, authorities have had enough of the cafes that are using their licenses to conduct gambling operations. They have now warned all licensees that if they use their cafes for illegal gambling, they will be criminally prosecuted.

"The Kuala Lumpar City Hall issued the cyber cafe licenses in the hope that people would be computer literate," said Deputy Minister Datuk M. Saravanan to Bernama, "but from the surprise checks conducted, we find the licenses issued to cyber cafe operators had been abused."

Saravanan claimed that many of the licensed cyber cafes were using gambling software in their establishments. He was further concerned that many of these establishments had children occupying the computers.

"I am disappointed because almost all the cyber cafes are found to be carrying out the illegal gambling activities with 80% of the customers comprising Bmiputeras, including youth," said Saravanan.

Cyber cafe raids have been taking place most prevalently in the US. Police in many states have begun to crackdown on illegal gambling at these cafes. The owners of the cafes sell Internet time, and then a customer can log on and play slot-like games.

When the customers win in many cases, they are given cash payouts. In other scenarios, the cafes have paid out their customers in gift cards or prizes.

June 22, 2009
Posted By April Gardner
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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