The Malaysian state Johor wants no part of any casinos being set up in its jurisdiction and any and all attempts in trying to get one up will be met with a Dikembe Mutombo-like rejection.
Those were the words that came out of Johor MB Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin, who was responding to a Reuters report claiming that Malaysian property firm Berjaya Assets, part of the Berjaya Group conglomerate, was looking into developing an 18-acre resort property in Johor Baru near the Malaysia-Singapore causeway.
The Johor MB remains steadfast in his stance that Johor will not have any casinos now or in the near future, at least until he’s around. As far as any applications coming from Berjaya Assets are concerned, Khaled also told reporters that he hasn’t received a sheet of paper regarding any form of interest coming from the property firm.
“We did not receive any application, proposal or plans on the (casino) project,” he said. And even if it did receive any applications, or even an approval from Malaysia’s federal government, Johor would oppose it and see to it that no casinos are ever built in the state.
Malaysia cracks the whip to start 2014
In other gambling-related news coming out of Malaysia, the New Year brought some bad news for at least 48 individuals after the Malaysian police performed a successful online gambling raid last Friday, resulting in the arrest of the said number of peeps.
The raid, which was performed in three separate locations in the Malaysian provinces of Sibi and Sarawak, included the arrest of 19 employees and 29 customers, as well as the forfeiture of more than 300 computers being used in the illegal gambling operation.
Malaysia has long been opposed to illegal online gambling activities and has exhausted a lot of time and effort in trying to curb the widespread infiltration of these operations in its borders. It’s not the first time a raid on illegal online gambling activities has happened in the country and for as long as there are still signs that it’s going on, these raids are unlikely to end any time soon.
At the very least, if you’re running a sketchy operation in Malaysia, the words of Miri police chief ACP Mun Kock Keong ought to give you cause to pause. During a press conference announcing the recent arrest haul from the raid, Keong made it clear that the Malaysian police is “committed to crippling such activities”, and that those who continue to operate these illegal operations will be mete with the full brunt of law enforcement might.
