The Interpol today announced that their officials have arrested 5,000 arrests in an international crackdown in four Asian countries targeting illegal football gambling during the recently concluded World Cup in South Africa. The raids also led to the seizure of $10m in cash. More than 800 illegal gambling dens in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China, including the territories of Hong Kong and Macau, were raided by Interpol officials in a closely coordinated operation. According to Interpol, the dens handled more than $115m in illegal World Cup bets.
"As well as having clear connections to organized crime gangs, illegal soccer gambling is also linked with corruption, money laundering and prostitution," Jean-Michel Louboutin, Interpol's executive director, said in a statement. The officers also seized alleged criminal assets including cars, bank cards, computers and mobile phones. Interpol's headquarters in France led the whole operation and it was done in a good manner due to the close cooperation of Asian police forces, added Louboutin.
Talking to Al Jazeera, Joe Saumarez Smith, the news editor of the website betasia.com, the arrests of 5,000 is nothing when compared to the size of the issue. "Ten million dollars is really an accounting error compared to the amounts of money changing hands. It looks like this has been a sweep-up of a lot of the small players," said Smith.
Sports betting is still illegal in much of Asia and people involved with sports betting are "shady characters," noted Smith. He added that some are "genuine book makers" but they also operate under-ground because gambling is illegal.
