[NEWS]Hong Kong Police used drones for the first time to tackle street gambling

[acroman08]

According to the article, the Hong Kong police have deployed drones to patrol and tackle illicit street gambling, so far they have arrested 8 people in the past two weeks(at least when they released this article on April 19, it's now May, so maybe more people have now been arrested). The suspects were charged with "gambling in any place not being a gambling establishment or in a street". The article also said that Hong Kong wants to restrict gambling to a limited number of controlled authorised outlets. It also says in the article that social gambling in private is allowed as long as it is not conducted as a business.

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember). Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

Hong Kong police have deployed drones for the first time to combat illegal street gambling operations, arresting eight suspects over the past two weeks.

The eight suspects – seven men and a woman, aged between 53 and 76 – were arrested in Chung On Estate, police said on Sunday. Officers seized HK$420 (US$54) in cash and gambling equipment.

The arrests followed a joint operation, codenamed JusticePeak, conducted between April 5 and 18 by officers from the Sha Tin and Ma On Shan police divisions to crack down on street-level illegal gambling.


“For the first time, drones were deployed to patrol and identify various street gambling black spots in the district,” the force said in a statement on Sunday.

The eight people were each charged with one count of “gambling in any place not being a gambling establishment or in a street”, according to police.

Police said they would continue to strengthen patrols and crack down on illegal gambling activities on the streets.

The government’s policy is to restrict gambling to a limited number of controlled authorised outlets. But social gambling in private premises is permitted.

In general, all gambling activities – including soliciting, receiving or settling bets – are illegal unless run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club or licensed mahjong parlours, restaurants and clubhouses. The club operates betting on activities such as horse racing, football and the Mark Six lottery.

Gambling at home is not an offence, but it must not be conducted as a business.

Under the Gambling Ordinance, those who illegally accept bets are subject to a maximum penalty of HK$5 million and imprisonment of up to seven years.

Anyone who participates in illegal gambling is liable to a maximum penalty of nine months’ imprisonment and a HK$50,000 fine.

Hong Kong police are also promoting “digital policing” to enhance operational efficiency, in line with practices in other jurisdictions.

Security authorities have been using drones in beat patrols, crime prevention and detection, crowd control and rescue operations.

Police have also deployed drones to detect traffic violations since last September.

Last week, in another drone-assisted anti-vice and illegal-worker crackdown, police arrested 19 people in various locations across the New Territories. Officers used drones for high-altitude patrols and surveillance during the operations.

[Hispo]

If I had to bet, I would say this is a new measure being employed by the government of Hong Kong in order to scare off street gamblers and then completely shut down their drone operations, as I doubt this is something cheap for them to keep up.
The salary of drone operators is not low and drones can be damaged during their duty, resulting in loss of capital for Hong Kong police department.

It is innovation, no doubt about it, and probably the police of Hong Kong and Chinese regime are considering to expand the use of drones as part of law enforcement in the future, when street gamblers are not longer a problem.

[aioc]

Very innovative, drones are better compared to agents. The Hong Kong police are using modern gadgets to make their jobs easier, and the cameras record their activities, providing strong evidence against these street gamblers. Street gambling must be that rampant in that city for the Hong Kong police to employ drones.
But I prefer that they just install hidden CCTVs because it's more costly to maintain and operate a drone, and there's a risk of getting destroyed if they lose control.
 

[qwertyup23]

<..snip..>

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember). Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

As a general rule, the government should only employ force that is necessary for the faithful execution and accomplishment of the law. If they exert too much force that is borderline violence, then that should not, in any way, be tolerated at all cost.
It will now depend on how much force these drones operate. If it can employ such minimal force while at least respecting the rights of these persons, then that would be considered as sufficient.

Very innovative, drones are better compared to agents. The Hong Kong police are using modern gadgets to make their jobs easier, and the cameras record their activities, providing strong evidence against these street gamblers. Street gambling must be that rampant in that city for the Hong Kong police to employ drones.
But I prefer that they just install hidden CCTVs because it's more costly to maintain and operate a drone, and there's a risk of getting destroyed if they lose control.
 

It would also depend on how effective these drones are in enforcing arrest. Technically, they can use drones in order to track the suspects into their movements, thereby preventing any form of escape on their part.

Additionally, drones are somehow expensive but if used correctly, it can be cost-saving on the part of the government. I just wish that these technology won't be outdated to the point that it will be inefficient in the long-run.

[sokani]

I'm aware that law enforcement agencies use drones for search and rescue operations, suspect tracking, accident scene mapping, etc, but this is actually the first time I am reading about it being used in the campaign against street gambling. Regarding if deploying drone is too extreme. Well, I can't say. I guess the government is doing what it thinks is best for the society. But I'm sure it will be very effective in tackling street gambling.

[coin-investor]

Gambling is illegal in Hong Kong except for authorised gambling establishments and venues like Horse racing and licensed mahjong parlors, so this is part of the crackdown of the government against illegal gambling, and Hong Kong is a highly urbanised and commercialized district, with so many alleys and pathways, so employing drones is an effective way to combat illegal gambling.
Drones are popular for surveillance too, with drones they can collect data of hidden places where illegal gambling is proliferating.

[Chinesebaby]

According to the article, the Hong Kong police have deployed drones to patrol and tackle illicit street gambling, so far they have arrested 8 people in the past two weeks(at least when they released this article on April 19, it's now May, so maybe more people have now been arrested). The suspects were charged with "gambling in any place not being a gambling establishment or in a street". The article also said that Hong Kong wants to restrict gambling to a limited number of controlled authorised outlets. It also says in the article that social gambling in private is allowed as long as it is not conducted as a business.

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember). Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

With the high rate of technology at this current era, I'm still surprised to hear that people still gamble openly on the streets in a big city like Hong Kong without caring how such act might influence young kids. Because inasmuch as Hong Kong is not against people gambling, but not openly, for me I'm totally okay with it. Because with the high rate of online casinos been launched, despite the fact that I heard some are banned in China. The best approach would have been to use VPN to access those casinos that accept the use of VPN. Rather than risking gambling in public, which might get me arrested. Because for the government to pass such bill into law, then it simply means the rate at which people gamble publicly might have been much.

[Perfectbaby]

There is nothing government can not do as long as gambling is concerned and they could go to another length and extent to make sure the put ends to illegal and street gambling where by deploying different tools to make sure that people on the street gamble responsible and not gambling in a bad where where they would cause nuisance and effecting the life's of other people negatively. The best is for them to carefully monitor those who are gambling using drones  and of course this is my first time also hearing that government are too strict in concerning their citizens to be gambling responsibly. If others are doing this same it would be that hard for them to be addicted to gambling since it's being properly regulated and monitored by the government.

[Agbamoni]

Smart move by the Hong Kong police department. By using the drone method, it wont just capture those gamblers, but there will be video evidence to capture those gamblers who managed to escape from the police.

First, it was the Philippine government going against gambling, now it's Hong Kong, but what I noticed is that the difference is illegal gambling. The Philippines doesn't want gambling at all, illegal or not, but in Hong Kong, they dont want illegal gambling.

[Mhizlove]

Using of drones in this kind of situation is looks to extra but if calm down and think about it, they have there reasons of choosing this kind of method because for place like Hong kong gambling do happen in a hidden place and it will be hard for police to monitor such places without being noticed, the drones can help them monitor from afar without even risking the lives of officers or going after people tho and fro. But looking from another angle, it raises little concern about privacy and people will feel as if the government is going about monitoring their common or public space. So this is two side because it can reduce illegal gambling and at the same time the people will still question the level of surveillance

[Alphakilo]

This move to employ drones by the Hong Kong police department is definitely a step in the right direction and great progress in the aspect of combating street and illegal gambling activities within the region.
It's a definite technical leap when considering the new and more focus driven use of AI enhanced equipment and footage to combat everyday local offenses including illegal gambling and drug peddling.

[batang_bitcoin]

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember).

Me too. But if it's effective, these illegal gamblers will move somewhere else and unlikely to be seen in an open aerial view from the drone.

Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

It is not too much. If they have to do it to enforce law and stop these illegal street gamblers, they should continue doing that. But we know that these are also street smart and they'll probably move to an area where it cannot be seen anymore. Maybe an underground or somewhere covered. That will be the solution that they'll do against these drones tackling them.

[Kavelj22]

The article or the authorities behind this giant innovative move should define in exact what is "street gambling" at first place. Then we can think the matter from two angles:

- If the goal of the government is to fight gambling outside licensed facilities, why pursuing gamblers themselves? The plan should target only people who provide gambling services far from the eye of the system which is an illegal act, but someone gambling isn't a crime by all means and it shouldn't be.

- How much it costs to build and operate many drones for continious missions in a daily or weekly basis? Is it worth the 7 persons they catched since two weeks? I think this can be called "using useful knowledge for a useless purpose".

[bitcoindusts]

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember). Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

Using drone to tackle street gambling is a smart move.  It looks like the Hongkong Authority really wants to tackle the problem of street gambling.  Btw, I said that it is a smart move because with drone they will have evidence of the activity due to video recording, they will enable to specify the person involve, and they can cut the escape route of the suspects.

It is a complete package to combat illegal street gambling.

[Bright0515]

First of all Hong Kong doesn't permit illegal gambling, but why will people still gamble illegally, isn't it more safer for them to gamble with their devices? Well I guess they don't understand the implications for such acts. I believe the Hong Kong police agencies should create more cells blocks to keep more gamblers because they will definitely arrest more gamblers in the near future. Honestly street gambling is very dangerous because it can lead to crime.

[Powerjumboo]

This is the first time I have heard of drones being used to detect and deal with something. The use of drones by the Hong Kong police has made their job a lot easier and they have made a very good decision. In fact, if the administration decides to use drones in places where gambling is not legal and is against the rules, I don't think it is a bad thing. It is certainly used to find illegal gamblers. However, in my opinion, using drones is not a bad idea at all. It is certainly a good initiative that can reduce the number of illegal gamblers. Moreover, the decision taken by the government to build a beautiful country will definitely be in the best interest of everyone.

[Orpichukwu]

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember). Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

As long as the result is productive, I don't consider any pattern to be too much, and these drones can even reach places and access information before the police themselves will have to get down there; it will serve as an eye. Even if those street gamblers manage to escape, the drone will already capture and save their image, which will be used to go after them; it's just a welcome development.

[Pi-network314159]

This is my first time hearing drones being used to tackle street gambling(as far as I remember). Do you guys think using drones to tackle street gambling is too much, or is it a great way to reduce illegal street gambling?

This is my first time hearing that drone is used to tackle street gambling, but I don't think using it to tackle street gambling is too much provided it is used by the government to reduce gambling addiction or tackle gamblers. For me it is a great way to reduce gambling addiction since most of this street gamblers are too smart to know all the angles that military officials comes from. But with drone it will be difficult for this guy's to know when they are being monitored by government. So I see it as a good option.

[Alpha Marine]

I am more interested in their ages. How are people between the ages of 58 and 73 involved in street gambling? I would like to know the kind of gambling games they were playing, because from what I know, it's usually people younger than 50 that are involved in illegal street gambling.

Well, the world is changing and becoming more innovative, so I expect we would see more of things like this. Authorities will look for better means to enforce laws.

If I had to bet, I would say this is a new measure being employed by the government of Hong Kong in order to scare off street gamblers and then completely shut down their drone operations, as I doubt this is something cheap for them to keep up.
The salary of drone operators is not low and drones can be damaged during their duty, resulting in loss of capital for Hong Kong police department.

These days, making drones are not that expensive. It doesn't have to be expensive military drones for these kind of operations. It could be just normal drones that are a little bit more sophistcated and not easily noticeable by human eyes. I believe they can keep it up.

[alani123]

Hong Kong is one of the world's biggest financial districts and yet so many people there leave in squalor, it's beyond belief actually.

Instead of the government being so paranoid trying to use big brother technology against their own citizens, why don't they just try to have a more humanistic approach and try to solve problems that might cause people be careless with their gambling habits. Hong Kong had a huge midline poverty issue and housing conditions issue. Solve these issues first honestly. Pay people fair wages, give them affordable places to stay. It's surely help much more than spending millions on surveillance drone tech against mere civilians.