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

[knowngunman]

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?

Maybe illegal street gambling is becoming the business of the day in Hong Kong and that's why government is trying to tackle it with all form of seriousness to the extent of deploying drones to assist security forces contain the escalation. This is my first time hearing something like this concerning gambling restriction.

It's a great way thou. The article was very clear, it's not against gambling entirely but fighting against illegal street gambling. It's for the safety of community because street gambling some time end in deadly chaos if there's a slight disagreement between the playing parties. Moreover, government can not earn tax from this street gambling and that might be one factor that triggered their action..

[Akbarkoe]

It is possible to pursue better efficiency by relying on drones, and also to see much greater activity than just the limited angle of the eye, the deployment of security forces consumes quite a lot of resources.
Munglin is more like espionage to get info before the officers move, especially in an environment that is quite closely guarded by the people there so drones can be very effective for getting information in such situations.

Street gambling is illegal because it doesn't comply with the regulations there.

[Betwrong]

~ 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 think drones are just part of our lives nowadays, and people are using them more and more for things like food delivery, fishing, and stuff. And, of course, they’ll be used by the police a lot. Do I think is it too much to use drones in the case you described? I don't know, if those guys are cheaters, they should be tracked and imprisoned, in my opinion. Normally, the problem of illegal gambling is not that it is gambling done "illegally",  but that it is not gambling but cheating, in the first place.

[danherbias07]

Well, maybe it won't end up like that if they see a clean street. There must be heavy street gambling in their area, which is why they were forced to implement this measure to clean the streets. Still, this is surprising for me. The online casino era is here, and I believe more people are using their smartphones and computers to gamble. Why are there a lot of people gambling in the street if they can do it online?

According to their law, gambling online is illegal, but they have local betting sites which are authorised by their government. Is it possible that it's because they are avoiding them because of the high house edge and unfair probability? It could be one reason why people still choose street gambling.

[YOSHIE]

According to the article, the Hong Kong police have deployed drones to patrol and tackle illicit street gambling,

Yes, I have a friend who works in Hong Kong, he once told me about the gambling situation there, bookies in Hong Kong often take advantage of street gamblers to bet illegally, this violates the rules and regulations of gambling in Hong Kong, While the government should have legalized gambling in special places, the opposite has happened.

Gamblers in Hong Kong choose to gamble on the streets for no reason, Macau's high costs are not suitable for street gamblers, so many bookies take advantage of situations like that, so it is not surprising that the Hong Kong police patrol street gamblers.

[Wakate]

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.

Drones can be use for anything and it's the best when tackling crimes. Drone will make it very hard for these crime victims to escape while police are tracking them anywhere they think they can run to. Street gambling is coupled with drugs, stealing and cultism.
If the government does not tackle it, the level of crime is going to increase making the area unhabitable.

[o48o]

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?

"Great way"? I would use different words. It could be an efficient way, that's for sure as long as those gamblers don't learn how to combat against drone surveillance, which they hopefully learn.

Because this is just not about illegal gambling. Imho state of their surveillance is beyond dystopian sci-fi, and USA is not far behind. Rest of the world copies USA and we have no privacy what so ever left. Because it's not only gamblers they will go after, it's everyone promoting democracy and having rebellious ideas. So not a "great" way.

[AmoreJaz]

Well, maybe it won't end up like that if they see a clean street. There must be heavy street gambling in their area, which is why they were forced to implement this measure to clean the streets. Still, this is surprising for me. The online casino era is here, and I believe more people are using their smartphones and computers to gamble. Why are there a lot of people gambling in the street if they can do it online?

According to their law, gambling online is illegal, but they have local betting sites which are authorised by their government. Is it possible that it's because they are avoiding them because of the high house edge and unfair probability? It could be one reason why people still choose street gambling.

These Chinese people have their own culture and so with their gambling practices. I don't think they can clean up the streets so easily because HK is a very crowded area. And yes, drones can assist them in this crackdown as it would be easier for the drone to navigate the metropolis of HK. What if they can just regulate the presence of street gamblers or is it quite hard as it can grow like mushrooms along the streets? They can just wipe it out along the streets and have certain area where these street gamblers can play under the jurisdiction of their government and maybe implement tax on this kind of business. So it will be a win-win situation for all of them.

[Sandra_hakeem]

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.

That's the reaction of a country that wants the best for their citizens, on like other countries that would do anything to make money off of everything, regardless of the permanent damages that it may incur.

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?

If the hong Kong police department decided that this is a good way to tackle the problems of illicit gambling in the state, what kind of suggestions are you requesting from me? Infact, I'm in full support of whatever it takes to regulate the industry around the world.

[Merit.s]

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?

There is a Cadre in Hong Kong called Force Drone Cadre (FDC). It's a special unit under the police force that was set up in October 2024. One of the role this Cadre plays is to detect crime and aerial patrols, crowd control and traffic monitoring. Which makes them to fit into combing illicit gambling in the streets of Hong Kong. It makes sense that way as you can see, they are doing their job properly.


https://www.police.gov.hk/offbeat/1268/eng/9021.html

[BABY SHOES]

~ 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 think drones are just part of our lives nowadays, and people are using them more and more for things like food delivery, fishing, and stuff. And, of course, they’ll be used by the police a lot. Do I think is it too much to use drones in the case you described? I don't know, if those guys are cheaters, they should be tracked and imprisoned, in my opinion. Normally, the problem of illegal gambling is not that it is gambling done "illegally",  but that it is not gambling but cheating, in the first place.

Drones are also becoming a tool for the government to perform tasks according to including those used by Hong Kong police to consider street gambling... because it could be that the police's regular patrols were ineffective in eradicating illegal gambling so they made new innovations with drones, even though people think this is a bit excessive, this is a modern era where something sophisticated will be used if it helps.

[bhadz]

If that will be done in our country, there will be a lot of those street gamblers who would run like they're on a chase. But, prior to these raids, there shouldn't be no notice to be done. Hong Kong is doing a good job for dealing with the illegal street gambling. I hope that our local police will adopt that strategy they do to eliminate or minimize the street gambling because a lot of young ones are seeing it and copying what these gamblers do as well.

[promise444c5]

I’m not sure the type of illegal gambling that requires them to use drones but it does solve some of the “illegal “ part of truly it’s constituting nuisance in the publicly.

Drones were probably used to jsut if them before they could try anything funny, so it’s a good use but are there anything in place to really curb illegal gambling theee? I’m sure there are more indoor units running illegal gambling networks , what about them?.

[Davidvictorson]

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 do not think that it is too much.

People need to learn to obey the law. It is made for their own good. Gambling addiction is costing billions of dollars(just a guess), illegal gambling should also be around that figure too because these are unregulated and any illegalities can happy and the operators will go scot free.

The operators of these unauthorized gambling establishments should also be arrested.

[Fortify]

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?

It's actually surprising that we're not seeing more enforcement taking place via drones, but I guess we are in that cutover era where it still might not be publicly acceptable and there may be liability issues. We are starting to see drone flights by companies like Amazon become a reality, which is going to break down many barriers but also fill the air with lots of potentially annoying vehicles. You do wonder why they are gambling at any sort of scale on the street though, but I guess it could still be in private but visible to a drone. I'm not sure that countries which ban gambling altogether have their priorities straight and this is more reflective of the actual police state that China has become where citizens have few rights and lose them if they upset the communist party.

[SFR10]

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

Although it could help reduce illegal street gambling to a small extent, I don't think it's a great/effective way of doing it... Drones make a lot of noise, so there's always some room for escape and unless they use high-altitude military surveillance drones ^{[highly unlikely]}, I can't see it as a solution to the issue in question.

[TopTort777]

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

Although it could help reduce illegal street gambling to a small extent, I don't think it's a great/effective way of doing it... Drones make a lot of noise, so there's always some room for escape and unless they use high-altitude military surveillance drones ^{[highly unlikely]}, I can't see it as a solution to the issue in question.

I think on a crowded street, you wont hear flying drone until it comes really close to you. But I agree that effectiveness of drone usage is a questionable activity. Like it was said, how come drone recognize if two strangers or two friends gamble? Because in first case that will be an illegal gambling but in second two buddies make a bet between themselves. Other disadvantage of drone usage are their low capacity batteries (if they use default drones instead of military or advanced and expensive). They have 30-60minutes to fly around, find illegal gamblers, before they have to go back to recharge or battery change. Just imagine if street patrols have to go back to base every 30min to drink coffee to continue work