THE police have arrested several individuals who are suspected to be involved in the filming of a Hari Raya-themed gambling video advertisements that went viral recently.
The 1-minute 54-second video titled ‘GDBet333 Hari Raya’ appeared to invite people to use GDBet333’s gambling services so that they can win double the money to celebrate the Ramadhan festivities.
According to Deputy Inspector-General Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani, those who were detained consisted of actors, artiste agents, videographers, and a producer/director.
If anything, this highlights the lengths that people are willing to go through to earn an income amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Times are hard, jobs have been scarce, and many talents out there are just taking up as many jobs as they can.
It is just pure dumb luck that the job these people had signed up for turned out to be an online gambling advertisement in disguise.
The actors and actresses from the controversial advertisement had previously reached out to social news platform World of Buzz to explain their side of the story, and if their accounts were to be believed, they were also innocent victims of the mastermind’s duplicity.
First of all, they were not informed of the video script beforehand. When they were selected for the ‘Raya music video’ and were told that they were going to be donning the baju kurung, that it was for a gambling ad was naturally the furthest thing from their minds.
When the real meaning behind the lyrics finally sank in – ‘GDBet’ would have already been a red flag from the start – it was too late. Questions were quickly raised, but they were brushed off by the person in charge.
When the video went up on YouTube, calls were made to the production team to take down the video. While it was eventually taken down, it was already too late.
The actors’ and actresses’ only crime in this case, I feel, was that they were too careless when accepting the job.
Isn’t it a norm to do a quick background check beforehand? Even on the day of the shoot, why didn’t they double-check the storyboard or speak up when something did not feel right?
Therefore, instead of imposing a harsh penalty, they ought to be let off with a stern warning instead. Remember, they were in it to earn an income too.
Rather, the authorities’ efforts must be focused on curbing and clamping down on online gambling syndicates to make sure that incidents such as these do not happen again. – April 23, 2021
