Proposal in the works to draft laws to license online gambling, says Multimedia Minister
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KUALA LUMPUR: There is a proposal to draft laws to license online gambling as a means to tax such activities in the country, says Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin(pic).
The Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister said that present laws were inadequate to deal with online gambling, particularly those conducted by operators abroad.
"For example, the money used by Malaysians for Magnum 4D, lottery draws and other forms of gambling such as casinos in Kuala Lumpur and Genting Highlands are taxed.
"But we don't get to collect taxes if the online gambling is conducted abroad from countries such as Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
"So there is a proposal to license such activities as what is happening now is that money belonging to Malaysians is being taken out of the country," he said when replying to a question raised by Datuk Mohd Nizar Zakaria (BN-Parit) at Dewan Rakyat on Monday (Nov 15).
Zakaria wanted to know what actions were being taken against telephone spam messages related to online gambling.
He said the proposed law would allow the authorities to keep tabs on online gambling activities while also collecting taxes.
He also noted that existing gambling laws such as the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953, were inadequate to deal with the current forms of online gambling.
He said enforcement authorities could only take action against gambling activities which were conducted in physical premises under the present law.
"This means that we need new laws," he added.
Apart from this, Zahidi said that it was difficult to take action against overseas online gambling operators as they often change their IP addresses when efforts are made to stop their activities.
He informed the House that since 2018 and as of Oct 31 this year, the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had deregistered 20,025 handphone numbers.
However, he said these numbers were not solely related to online gambling spamming but also online scams and other criminal activities.
He added that a total of 4,799 gambling websites were also blocked during the same period.
Last Monday (Nov 8), Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Mohamed Said told Dewan Rakyat that the Finance Ministry is working with several other ministries to review archaic laws on gambling.
This, he said, included the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 and Betting Act 1953.
