KUALA LUMPUR: Cybercafe owners who turn their outlets into gambling dens by using Internet casinos may find themselves banished under the Restricted Residence Act, Inspector-general of Police Tan Sri Norian Mai warned yesterday.

"We will not hesitate to banish such operators to stop it from becoming a major problem," he said, adding that this will prevent such outlets from mushrooming further in the Klang Valley.

Norian said investigations had shown there was already an increase in such outlets in the Klang Valley and that police had identified 21 outlets so far.

"We believe if action is not taken to address the matter promptly, the outlets which were meant to provide Internet services to the people will be abused," he told reporters after visiting the City police contingent headquarters here.

Australia went one step further last month when it proposed to ban Internet casinos.

There are now more than 300 Internet casino sites, all of which are unregulated.

A study by the Australian Productivity Commission found that 130,000 Australians had severe gambling problems while 160,000 had moderate problems.

Online gamblers tend to lose an average of A$12,000 per person each year amounting to A$11bil (RM26.3bil) each year.

Norian said police had confiscated about 5,000 gambling machines, mostly video arcade machines, last year in Kuala Lumpur.

"The owners will be charged in court and slapped with hefty fines. This could help to reduce such unhealthy activities from flourishing," he said.

On the crime rate in the city, he said police managed to solve more cases last year compared to the previous year.

"Last year, city police managed to solve 33% of all cases. This exceeded the initial target of 20% set nationwide," he said.

Earlier, Norian said police believed syndicates were responsible for bringing illegal foreign sex workers into the country.

"A total of 717 foreign prostitutes were arrested, charged and deported last year," he said, adding that most of them were from Indonesia, Thailand, China, Uzbekistan and Khazakstan.

However, investigations showed that some of them were able to sneak in again within two to three months after being deported.

"So far we have recorded at least 28 such cases," Norian said.

On the Steyr Gang, he said they were looking for a few more suspects to help in the investigations. Police have arrested five people so far.