Huge Interpol crackdown on illegal gambling across Asia

Across Asia there have been thousands of arrests as police try to crack down worldwide on illegal betting over the World Cup. Interpol, the organisation in charge of international policing, announced that about 800 gambling houses were raided across China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The crackdown was named “Operation Soga III” by police results in the seizure of many cars, computers, bank cards and also mobile phones between 11th of June and 11th of July.

There were reports released to the press which said that the gambling dens had dealt with over £100 million of bets. During the operation police seized £6 million and there is also mounting speculation about whether the illegal gambling in Asia influenced the outcome of the World Cup.  According to Christian Fraser from the BBC, “spot bets” such as which player will be booked first in a match are much easier to fix than which team will win the game. It has been announced by Interpol that there will be an investigation into whether the gambling dens in Asia had any influence over the World Cup.

Jean-Michel Louboutin,, the chief of police services at Inerpol, said that the results of Operation Soga III have been extremely “impressive”, in particular he praised the “police co-operation which made this (the raids and consequent arrests) possible”. Interpol have been focusing more on illegal gambling recently and this crackdown is their third operation in recent years. The previous two operations were known as Soga I and Soga II.