A 15-year-old boy was among five Hong Kong residents arrested by Macau police when they raided three soccer-betting dens on Thursday night. A Macau man was also arrested.
The raids, which also covered Guangdong and Hong Kong, netted betting slips worth nearly $5 million and several computers.
'Our intelligence pointed to rampant offshore betting online, so we carried out this operation, the largest in recent years, based on our intelligence,' a police spokesman said. The boy, along with two Hong Kong men in their 20s, was arrested in a flat containing betting slips worth $1.7 million.
Separately, a 47-year-old Hong Kong man and his 43-year-old brother were arrested in a flat along with betting slips worth $1.7 million. Police believe the two betting dens belong to the same ring and target mostly Hong Kong punters.
In a third raid, a Macau man in his 50s was arrested in an apartment, where suspected soccer betting had been operating for more than two months.
'We found equipment used for betting, including telephones and cellphones, and some betting slips [worth $1.5 million],' a police spokesman said.
