{"id":31076,"date":"2022-06-23T05:15:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T08:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=31076"},"modified":"2026-04-23T07:30:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:30:50","slug":"malaysian-minister-calls-for-online-gambling-to-be-regulated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/malaysian-minister-calls-for-online-gambling-to-be-regulated","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian minister calls for online gambling to be regulated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Malaysia loses nearly RM2bn in tax revenue from online gambling, says Datuk Zahidi Zainul, deputy communications and multimedia minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Malaysia.- Although gambling is very popular in Malaysia,\u00a0the country’s only gaming option other than its three turf clubs and numerous off-track betting facilities is one sole land-based casino. As a result, authorities are constantly fighting against\u00a0illegal online gambling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin<\/strong>, deputy communications and multimedia minister, says that needs to change. He’s warned that the government is losing almost nearly RM2bn in tax revenue annually by not regulating online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abidin revealed the government is considering amending the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 to allow online games involving \u201cbetting\u201d and \u201cgift offers\u201d to be regulated. He also said\u00a0the Ministry of Finance is preparing to review the best tax approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar in Prime Minister\u2019s Department (Parliament and Law) has previously said that gaming taxes could be used to “to solve many problems\u2026 issues with roads, drains and others but the government is unable to do so because it does not have a mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malaysia loses nearly RM2bn in tax revenue from online gambling, says Datuk Zahidi Zainul, deputy communications and multimedia minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Malaysia's Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, reports an annual loss of nearly RM2bn in tax revenue due to unregulated online gambling. The government is considering amending the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 and reviewing tax approaches to regulate online gaming, aiming to capture this revenue for public infrastructure.","focusai_entities":"Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, Ministry of Finance, Prime Minister\u2019s Department (Parliament and Law), Ministry of Communications and Multimedia","focusai_location":"Malaysia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.8)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Act 1953 Amendments","query":"What specific amendments are being considered for the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 to establish a robust regulatory framework for online gambling in Malaysia, and what is the projected timeline for legislative action?"},{"label":"Market GGR Potential","query":"What is the projected Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) potential for a newly regulated Malaysian online gambling market, and what tax rates are being considered by the Ministry of Finance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[229,23911,4138],"class_list":["post-31076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31076"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31093,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31076\/revisions\/31093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}