INTERPOL has established the arrests of 1,400 people across East Asia; the outcome of a campaign that is six-week split up illegal gambling companies in the region. The operation, code-named Operation SOGA V, had been a joint work between police force from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, and coordinated by INTERPOL, and saw the seizure of almost $12 million.

Illegal gambling is rife in East Asia, and bets put through the wagering syndicates, which can be controlled by organized crime, dwarf the legal European and North American gambling markets many times over. That it could be around $450 billion because it is clandestine and unregulated, it’s difficult to place a figure in how much the market is actually worth, but Foreign Policy magazine recently estimated.

It’s also believed that $140 billion in dirty cash is laundered through the market every year. INTERPOL said this week that the organizations separated in the raid that is latest were estimated to own handled around $2.2 billion worth of bets, most of those through unlawful online gambling sites.

‘ The results of this latest procedure SOGA are significant with regards to the volume of bets being handled by these illegal gambling dens, plus the number of arrests,’ stated Jean-Michel Louboutin, INTERPOL’s executive Continue reading →