PENANG, MALAYSIA - Illegal four-digit counting centres have gone mobile to avoid being detected by the police.

State CID chief Senior Asst Comm II Wan Abdullah Tuanku Said said the centres would not stay long in one place.

'They can be here for a week and another place the next. They have a few locations throughout the state. But we are already wise to their tricks and managed to track down one such centre at a house in Jalan Ong Yi How, Butterworth, which is capable of accepting RM3.6mil in bets a month,' he said.

SAC Wan Abdullah said three men and three women, aged between 24 and 44, all related, were nabbed in a raid on the house at 3pm on Sunday by a state anti-vice team which had been monitoring the premises for some time.

'Nine facsimile machines, three laptops, 10 mobile phones and 250 betting slips were recovered with their arrests. They were raking in up to RM300,000 in bets per draw.

'The suspects have since been remanded and could be charged under the Common Gaming House Act 1953 which carries a five-year jail term with a possible RM200,000 fine,' he told a press conference yesterday.

In an unrelated incident, police arrested two horseracing bookies, aged 37 and 55, in Kepala Batas here on Saturday.

A district police team raided a house and arrested the duo that had only been active for a short time. Three laptops and four mobile phones were recovered from the premises.

Investigations showed that they took in bets of up to RM150,000 per race day.

SAC Wan Abdullah said the police recently stepped up operations against illegal gambling syndicates that were especially active on the Penang mainland.