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

[Cantsay]

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 the first time I’ve seen anything like this. Tackling street gambling with drone doesn’t sound too much for me. At least the article says that gambling at home isn’t illegal so instead of gambling in streets (I don’t know the exact game though) they could take it to their home or those organizing the bets would have to look for a more secure location to set up the whole thing since the drone would make street betting more difficult for them.

[acroman08]

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.

In asian countries, it's not uncommon to see old people gamble. As for the old people arrested for street gambling in Hong Kong, I am guessing they are playing mahjong, as far as I know, mahjong is the most popular gambling game for old people there(at least from what I remember reading before). That being said, I am just making an assumption on what they are probably playing, so I could be totally wrong.

[hyudien]

An innovative move, drones can not only hit the streets faster, they can also capture footage that can be used as hard evidence. I think this kind of move should be emulated by countries that have high levels of illegal street gambling. Although it may not be able to tackle illegal gambling completely, it will at least minimize it.
But when I searched for the latest news, there has been no more news, officially there are still only 8 people who have been arrested, as the OP explained.

[Dave1]

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?

I wouldn't say it's too much, that is the full force of the law, so they will do everything in their power to stop street gambling for good. For all we know, Chinese loves to gamble and so even in their street, the government see this as a problem as there could be a lot of people, just ordinary citizens who gambles and try to seek their luck and then when they lose, what's going to happen to them?

It this street gambling might cause a lot of trouble too. And maybe they are being controlled by a gang and so the police will do everything to stop that. And there is nothing illegal in using drones as technology is far advancing. Even if wars, drone is being used in the Middle East.

[Hispo]

An innovative move, drones can not only hit the streets faster, they can also capture footage that can be used as hard evidence. I think this kind of move should be emulated by countries that have high levels of illegal street gambling. Although it may not be able to tackle illegal gambling completely, it will at least minimize it.
But when I searched for the latest news, there has been no more news, officially there are still only 8 people who have been arrested, as the OP explained.

It is innovative, yes.
But we also need to keep in mind we are talking about a special province of China, it would very likely this innovation which is being used to tackle illegal gambling could be used to spy on people, for example, as part of the Chinese digital cyber state.

I am okey with having some drinks flying around as part of some patrol unit, but this kind of technology could be fused with AI in order to keep an eye on political opponents or people who are vocal on their opposition against the Communist Chinese Party.

We need to be careful an do not allow these kind of things to be one the norm in our democracies.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

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

Well, it's not too much, it's just according to current times. Technology allows that, so authorities take advantage of it. The problem with this technology is the invasion of privacy.

I am okey with having some drinks drones flying around as part of some patrol unit, but this kind of technology could be fused with AI in order to keep an eye on political opponents or people who are vocal on their opposition against the Communist Chinese Party.

We need to be careful an do not allow these kind of things to be one the norm in our democracies.

Right. The growing number of cameras on the streets, as well as the use of drones—which, whilst they can be used to fight crime, can also be used to monitor the population. In the EU, we theoretically have laws against this, but then you see the authorities pushing anti-privacy measures such as CBDCs, and you wonder how many years it will be before we end up with a full-blown Big Brother state.

[bitbollo]

Impressive, it means it was at level that wasn't possible to hide anymore...
I would not make a comparision with EU countries there are too much differences.
Illegal gambling is part of certain local culture, I don't know if these solutions could fit everywhere.

For sure this has an impact to the public finance and maybe this could lead to collect more taxex from legal gambling?

[Porfirii]

Perhaps (I'm not assuring this) the use of drones could be justified in the case of very severe crimes like terrorism or the ones by organized gangs, but if they start to be used indiscriminately, we may end up living in a dystopian nightmare that not even the most imaginative novelists could have imagined. And I would say that street gambling is, by no means, such a dangerous activity in the vast majority of cases to justify their use (but I live in a country with many freedoms comparatively speaking, so what do I know?).

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Well, this is a good innovation if you ask me, reading through the article you quoted, I could also see that they have used the drone surveillance to tackle traffic violations and have also used it to fight another crime in the province. This ideology is good and if they keep it effective, they can use it to spy and detect every other illegal activities that is going on daily in the streets of their country. If they are not going to only use this drones for only some preferred crime, it will do them good.

[TopTort777]

Innovative approach, but would not a dressed as civilian police officer is still better? With help of a drone you can only faster spot the place where people gamble, but from above is it possible to identify a person and identify if that person is really gambling with a stranger but they are not two friends who have placed a bet between each other. Another story - drones can fly and monitor what you do at home. If they spot an illegal casino organized at home that is good, but isnt it a violation of a personal space and life?

[Emjay24]

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?

Not heard such too, was thinking drones are particularly war equipments but now it is being deployed for street surveillance against illegal gambling sites. I doubt this is the whole story, they have more on their sleeves, this is probably a swipe to give the drone surveillance a positive  image while they continue using it for the main purpose of its deployment. Illegal gambling is by far the simplest crime to track down with boy scouts in the street, you don't need expensive equipment, so deploying drones means they're surveying the areas for other concerns and not specifically for illegal gambling points.

[nimogsm]

On the one hand, it's a good idea for the authorities to remove illegal gambling from the streets and public places. But on the other hand, it's an illusion of street control: players will simply retreat indoors where drones can't see them, and that's it. Anyone who wants to continue gambling at unauthorized locations will continue to do so by any means necessary, and no fines will stop them.

[Karl_3000]

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.

This is the first time that I am reading about government fighting street gambling, in my country, the government leave all of them alone.

Another thing is how will the drone know all street gambling? This is not possible. Example is football that people bet on, and they are just playing it like normal street football. How will the drone know?

I know the drone can easily know dice and few other ones but people are very wise. They will look for way to avoid detection.

[maydna]

Finally the police deployed drone to patrol and tackle illicit street gambling. Good for them because they can watch the street that they suspect people doing street gambling.

They use the technology for their works and gave a good result for them and will deployed more to watch other areas.

It seems the government wants to be strictly with gambling and watching their areas also controlling the people to be careful when they gamble. Using drones to tackle street gambling is good as that can reducing illegal street gambling.

Those who want to playing gambling will not doing in the street but choose one place there.

[acroman08]

On the one hand, it's a good idea for the authorities to remove illegal gambling from the streets and public places. But on the other hand, it's an illusion of street control: players will simply retreat indoors where drones can't see them, and that's it. Anyone who wants to continue gambling at unauthorized locations will continue to do so by any means necessary, and no fines will stop them.

I'm sure they know that, but I think one of their goals is to discourage people from gambling on the streets and encourage them to gamble on authorised gambling outlets. Also, they said social gambling is allowed indoors/in private as long as they are not conducting it as a business.

[Sanitough]

Those who want to playing gambling will not doing in the street but choose one place there.

Because OP already warned them when he brought the news here. 

These people are smart too. They love to run illegal gambling, so of course they also know how to avoid getting caught. In some way, this kind of campaign can still help minimize gambling, especially street gambling. Not 100%, just being realistic, but at least it can still be an effective move.

What I’m wondering is, why don’t they just try to learn online gambling instead? I think that would be easier and safer for them, especially with crypto.

[Doan9269]

For how long are they going to monitor all these activities in gambling through drones, what about the online gambling casinos, can they also monitor them and see what is going on between gamblers, could drone search everywhere and give them the accurate information about gamblers at a particular time and maintain the same search every day?

One thing the government should realize is their failure in trying to control or regulate gambling, this cannot be successfully achieved and they are better off focusing more on other violence than trying to concentrate attention on what gives citizens entertainment and pleasure to do more.

[Ronsbit]

This is a nice idea and a very innovative one. This medium, I strongly believe, would reduce the rate at which illegal street gambling occurs in the society. The Hong Kong government really thought about this very well, and whoever gave them this idea is a smart one. This would scare away street gamblers and keep the street clean and void of illegal gambling activities.

Using drones is not an easy task though because it requires the expertise of a professional who could properly control and manage it properly and also running the maintenance is another thing to look into because it would cost the government alot of funds to do it and for the government to do this then it means the revenue they have been generating from the legal gambling vendors is reducing due to the illegal street gambling and the only way to tackle such a situation is to clamp down on them which they are doing now so that the gamblers could go through the right channels to play their gambles enabling the gambling stores to be able to generate funds as well so the government too would get their own revenue from them.

[Darker45]

Here's a place where rules are implemented strictly and efficiently. I can only wish it's the same in my country.

It appears the Hong Kong police means business with the use of drones to monitor the streets, making sure it's free from illegal street gambling. From where I am, it's the police itself that's protecting illegal street gambling. Illegal street gambling can't operate without the clandestine approval of the police. It's the police itself that's the protector of illegal gambling. There isn't a single illegal gambling operation without connection with the police.

[freedomgo]

It's the police itself that's the protector of illegal gambling. There isn't a single illegal gambling operation without connection with the police.

Are you referring to the Philippines? If yes, then it is already an open secret. Anyone who gambles and is mature enough would know that this kind of thing is happening.
Actually, even with POGO operations, the government already banned them, but there are still reports that some are still operating quietly, even just renting condos and hiding their setup. And honestly, there is no way they can continue doing that without some kind of protection.

So like you, I also hope this corruption will end, or at least be minimized. Because as long as there are people protecting these illegal operations, they will always find a way to continue.