Police arrested 8 men and 4 women, aged between 31 and 60 years old, in an operation conducted against an illegal lottery syndicate yesterday.

On 1 Feb 2010 at about 11.30am, officers from Central Police Division raided a units in a shopping complex located at Beach Road. During the raid, about $20,000 cash, numerous betting records, fax machine, handphone and documents were seized from the unit which was suspected to be a bet collection centre.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the members of the illegal lottery syndicate would collect bets from punters at the said unit, after which they would consolidate the bets and transmit them electronically or by telephone to an overseas collection centre. The results of the illegal lottery are based on a foreign country’s public lottery. Investigations are ongoing.

Persons found guilty of assisting in the carrying on of a public lottery face a minimum fine of S$20,000 and maximum fine of S$200,000 and imprisonment for up to 5 years. Persons found guilty of buying an illegal lottery ticket face a fine of up to S$5,000 or imprisonment for up to 6 months or both.

Commander of Central Police Division, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police Lau Peet Meng said, “Police will continue to take tough enforcement against such illegal gambling activities. The public is advised not to place bets with illegal 4-D syndicates as punters risk criminal penalties as well."