KUALA LUMPUR: ILLEGAL gambling outlets that used to operate in seclusion have found their way into residential areas.
With more residential areas being built within the vicinity of commercial centres, residents have found that their families are living mere metres away from a crime scene.
Acting on a complaint from a resident in a well-known residential area in Kuala Lumpur, the New Straits Times (NST) carried out a two-week stake-out at a commercial business area in Ampang, where illegal gambling outlets flourish under the noses of the authorities.
In just one residential area, the NST managed to identify more than 10 illegal gambling dens.
Operating beside restaurants and rows of shops, the gambling dens made no effort to disguise their location.
However, due to this high visibility, additional safety measures were placed to ensure business ran smoothly.
Other than having tontos (lookouts) guarding the entrance to their shops, the black-tinted mirrors provided the operator and punters cover from the prying eyes of the passers-by. Closed-circuit television cameras were also mounted at the entrance of these shops for early detection of “unwanted visitors”.
Entering one of the dens, the NST team faced a board by the counter showing CCTV printouts of all the visitors suspected as authorities, cheaters or rival gang members.
Their pictures were pasted there so minders knew who they were to allow in or keep out.
The interior of the gambling dens is similar to the ones previously exposed by NST in Bukit Bintang.
The gambling computers, slot machines and the ‘mesin ikan’ gambling arcade, as well as the jackpot offerings and complimentary drinks were reminiscent of raided gambling dens in the past.
Surprisingly, despite offering nothing other than illegal gambling games, almost all of the gambling dens in the area brandished their operating permits at the entrance of their shops.
Time and again, police patrols went past these gambling dens without stopping to look inside.
With the municipal logo clearly imprinted on these permits, the illegal gambling dens were able to pull a wool over the authorities’ eyes that their operation was legal.
Residents, however, were not fooled.
On one of the nights of the stakeout, NST paid a visit to the restaurant next to one of the gambling shops to inquire about the gambling dens.
One of the diners, who wished to be known only as Kenny, said the illegal gambling dens could no longer fool the public about the nature of their business.
“Maybe they could mask their businesses before this. But now, so many people know about it (the illegal gambling). It is all over the television and newspapers. I don’t see the point of them putting it (the permit) out there. People know anyway,” he said.
Kenny brushed off the possibility that the illegal gambling dens had managed to trick the authorities into believing that they were carrying out legal operations.
“Why can’t the authorities monitor the kind of businesses that go on in there? These shops have been here for so long, but I have never seen the authorities going inside the premises.
“They have time to come here and summon the cars that are parked at the wrong spots, but they don’t have time to look inside the shops,” he said.