Police raid small-time gambling company
Police raid small-time gambling company
JAKARTA (JP): Police have vowed to continue with a campaign
against mushrooming lottery sales as part of efforts to rid the
capital of gambling practices, an officer said on Saturday.
City police detectives chief Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo said
one of the measures to eliminate the lottery scheme, locally
known as judi buntut, was through raids on gambling dens.
He said the latest raid was conducted late on Friday in East
Jakarta, and that 20 people were arrested for their alleged
involvement.
Alex admitted that most people arrested in the raids on
several places in the capital were mostly small-scale coupon
sellers.
"But from them (the small-scale operators), we expect to also
get the bigger operators," Alex said, adding that the raids and
arrests were aimed at discouraging people from the illegal
business.
Regardless of whether they ran small- or large-scale gambling
activities, their owners would be charged under Article 303 of
the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in
jail or a fine of Rp 25 million (US$3,700), Alex said.
He said Friday's raid was carried out in a shop at the busy
Kampung Melayu bus terminal in East Jakarta. The shop's owner was
identified as 34-year-old Fortunatus M. Taming, who was one of
the 20 people arrested by the officers.
Police also confiscated 15 calculators, 21 cassettes and Rp
6.9 million cash.
"We closely watched the coupon-selling activities for nearly
one month before the raid," he said.
Nineteen of the 20 arrested people were employees at the shop,
which started the gambling business one and a half years ago, he
said, adding that lottery coupons sold at Fortunatus' shop could
only be ordered over the telephone.
Gamblers called and placed bets on two or four numbers, and
the winning numbers would be announced the next day by the
operators through newspaper advertisements.
The rules of the lottery are similar to those in Singapore,
whereby gamblers whose coupons match two numbers, receive 60
times their original bet. If four numbers are matched the payout
is 250 times the original bet.
The Singapore lottery has a minimum bet of Rp 1,000,
Fortunatus sets a minimum of Rp 500.
Alex said that during the raid, which was launched at 11:30
p.m., Fortunatus and his 19 employees were busy sorting the
coupons before drawing the winners at midnight and sending the
numbers to the newspapers to be announced. (emf)