Khalid (front) addressing members of the media during a press conference at the Bukit Beruang police headquarters. Behind him is Melaka police chief Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan. — Bernama photo
MELAKA: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has urged the state governments and local authorities to cease issuing family entertainment licences.
He said this was because there were too many cases of operators abusing such licences to turn the family entertainment centres into gambling dens.
“What is the purpose of having family entertainment centres when it is filled with machines that are turned into gambling slot machines,” he told a press conference after attending a gathering of senior officers of the state police contingent at the Bukit Beruang police headquarters yesterday.
Khalid said it was unfair to blame only the police in the prevention of gambling activities when the local authorities issued the entertainment licences and had legal provisions to curb them.
In Ipoh, state CID chief Datuk Gan Tian Kee said there are no illegal computerised gambling machines operating throughout the state of Perak.
He said Perak police chief Datuk Hasnan Hassan viewed the matter seriously, and had directed all district police
chiefs to monitor and ensure no such operations existed in the state.
Gan was commenting on a recent media report saying illegal gambling machines were still in operation in the district of Taiping.
“Following the report, the police carried out inspections at two premises located in Kamunting and Jalan Taiping respectively.
“Investigations found no offence had been committed and all the simulator machines on display were contained in the licence issued,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
Gan said checks on the licences of both the premises also found that they were issued by the Taiping Municipal Council effective Jan 1, and were still valid.
In a media report dated May 22, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had urged the authorities to act decisively and curb the increasingly rampant operation of illegal gambling premises in Taiping.
The NGOs included the Malay Heritage Youth Organisation, Malaysian Youth Parliament, Perak Youth State Assembly, Bukit Gantang Umno Youth and Bukit Gantang Umno Puteri.
Malaysian Youth Parliament member Mohd Adri Adha Mohamad claimed several illegal gambling premises in Taiping as well as Larut, Matang and Selama were found from two-months of surveillance in the areas. — Bernama