Tuesday June 2, 2009
Most loan shark cases involved habitual gamblers
KUALA LUMPUR: Some 80% of the 870 cases involving loan sharks recorded by the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department since January last year involved habitual gamblers.
Department head Datuk Michael Chong said these gamblers were “defaulters” and not “victims”.
“By defaulting on their payments, their family members suffered at the hands of the loan sharks.
“These gamblers are defaulters. Don’t call them victims, they don’t deserve to be called victims. Their family members are the victims,” Chong told The Star yesterday.
He said most gamblers got into trouble with loan sharks after losing their bets on international football matches and other games such as roulette, and they needed to continue borrowing to recover the original sum.
“If he loses RM1,000, he will borrow another RM1,000 to recover the loss. When he loses that, he will then need to borrow RM2,000 to recover the original RM2,000.
“All of them never think. They only think of paying back their debts by winning from gambling,” he said.
However, Chong said most of the time, the complainants would not admit to being gamblers until they were coaxed or exposed by their family members.
He said the department had advised the complainants in 95% of the gambling-related loan sharks cases to “disappear and not return” until they had enough money to pay back their principal sum.
“In some cases, their families have disowned them for repeatedly getting into trouble with loan sharks.
“In fact, less than 5% of the cases we handled have been able to immediately and fully settle their principal sums,” he said.
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