The Black Leopard guerilla force has warned gamblers in Sagaing’s Pale Township that they will be caned, according to a statement by the group on 6 April.

“The Military Council allows people to gamble [in various ways] such as playing cards and doing the lottery to take people’s minds off the revolution. They collect fees from people and allow them to gamble. For that reason, we have officially warned the public not to gamble”, said Black Leopard member Ko Oakka to Mizzima.

"We issued the statement because people spend millions of kyats betting on gambling, especially the four animals Keno game….which leads to immoral behavior”, he added.

The statement also said that families have been ruined by gambling and that it has changed people's behavior and distracted them from the revolution.

“Before issuing the statement we made requests to the public not to gamble….. Despite our requests, people kept gambling so our force warned people not to gamble”, Ko Oakka explained.

He said: "We are not going to seize their belongings such as money at the moment, but we are planning to punish them by caning them. Gamblers will be caned five or ten times".

Pale is one of the revolutionary strongholds in Sagaing Region and there are many guerilla attacks on the Military Council in the region.

"The Military Council does not care if it causes people to behave badly. The military only focuses on taking people's attention away from the revolution. That's why they allow all gambling", said Ko Oakka.