a fine up to SG$500,000 (US$372,500) <\/strong>and imprisonment up to seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAlthough the GRA has not yet released an official public statement regarding this matter, there have been no enforcement actions against Polymarket listed in the public directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illegal gambling in Singapore: Over 3,800 websites blocked by the MHA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) blocked more than 3,800 illegal gambling websites <\/strong>in the first eight days of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMore than 145,000 illegal gambling transactions<\/strong> involving the Singapore public, amounting to about SGD37m (US$27.0m), had been blocked as of December 31, 2024, as reported by The Straits Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMinister of Home Affairs, K. Shanmugam<\/strong>, said during a session in the city-state\u2019s parliament: \u201cThese blocking measures have impeded access to illegal online gambling to some extent. However, this approach is clearly not foolproof as illegal operators can easily create new websites, and we do not have the ability to know of every gambling website.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe further encouraged the public to report to the police illegal websites, apps, advertisements and bank accounts used by illegal gambling operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shanmugam also said that the MHA currently has no intentions to allow families of people with gambling-harm-related issues to ask for the blocking of their bank accounts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gambling Regulatory Authority deemed the prediction market platform as an \u201cillegal gambling site\u201d operated by an unlicensed provider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777019844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Singapore's Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) has ordered internet service providers to restrict access to Polymarket, classifying the crypto prediction platform as an \"illegal gambling site\" operated by an unlicensed provider. This action, under the Gambling Control Act 2022, underscores Singapore's stringent regulatory posture, with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) having blocked over 3,800 illegal gambling websites and SGD37 million in transactions this year.","focusai_entities":"Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), Polymarket, Singapore Pools, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), K. Shanmugam, The Straits Times","focusai_location":"Singapore","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GRA's Enforcement Scope?","query":"What are the specific criteria and jurisdictional reach the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) employs when classifying and enforcing against novel gambling verticals, such as crypto prediction markets, under the Gambling Control Act 2022?"},{"label":"Impact on Payment Processors?","query":"How do the blocking of illegal gambling transactions, amounting to SGD37m, impact payment service providers and financial institutions operating within Singapore, particularly concerning their AML and fraud prevention frameworks?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[23911,24413,4138],"class_list":["post-777021968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-gambling-regulatory-authority","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021968","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=777021968"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777021977,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021968\/revisions\/777021977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777019844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777021968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777021968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777021968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}