Sri Lanka police launched coordinated raids against five illegal casinos over the weekend. A total of 94 arrests were made, including the owners and managers of the illegal gambling joints in Pettah, a commercial area of the capital Colombo. But perhaps the main takeaway is that no cops appear to have been harmed in the process of making their arrests.
Over the years, CalvinAyre.com has covered a lot of Asian gambling arrests, both the land-based and online varieties. Most of the time the people inside the premises being raided – be they organizers or merely gamblers – tend to come quietly. But other times, their frustration with having their livelihoods threatened and/or their evening’s entertainment cut short can lead to them mounting a fierce counterattack that has the police playing defense.
Case in point… Late last month, three Vietnamese police officers raided a suspected illegal gambling den in Hai Phong, catching around 20 people in the act. But when ordered to stay still, one of the gamblers demanded to know who had tipped off the cops to the den’s existence. Not getting the answers he sought, the lippy gambler began insulting the police, which apparently encouraged the other gamblers, who proceeded to attack the cops en masse. Thanh Nien News reported that the police were assaulted with bricks, wooden rods and shovels until backup arrived and one of the cops fired a couple shots into the ceiling. Police have charged 10 individuals with gambling and resisting arrest.
Police in the Malaysian town of Bekenu were similarly disrespected by an illegal immigrant from Indonesia on Friday night. During a raid on a suspected gambling den, the Indonesian ex-pat whipped out a sharp object and attempted to stab the cops. The Borneo Post reported that the Indonesian was a practitioner of mysticism who apparently believed his own body was impervious to penetration by sharp objects, including bullets. That belief was quickly disproved when police drew their revolvers and shot the man in the stomach. (Hope his other wagers were more rooted in reality.) The 40-year-old was rushed to hospital and is expected to recover, after which he’ll most assuredly go to prison, where his fellow inmates will also attempt to disprove his penetration theory using methods that are less lethal but equally discomforting.
