Singapore accused of helping lottery operators

Worker’s Party accused the Government of allowing lottery operators to offer legal activities in order to get more money.

Singapore.- Pritam Singh, Workers’ Party MP, denounced that the government was helping lottery operators Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club to offer legal online gambling activities to make more money.

Back in 2014, when the Government passed the Remote Gambling Act, its aim was to arrest addictive behaviour and easy access to these games. Furthermore, websites that offer remote gambling services have since been blocked. Singh said in an adjournment motion in Parliament that there’s been a lack of clarity as to how the Government is addressing the “scourge of online gambling.”

Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee said that the accusation was outrageous: “It’s the most disturbing thing I’ve heard this evening.” He urged the party to clarify its position on online gambling and to suggest what they would do instead. Lee said that illegal online gambling activity was growing at an alarming rate all over the world and that Singapore would not be one of the countries to close its eyes and pretend it doesn’t exist. “We need a valve, legal, run by non-profit organisations, where people have to sign up, so we know who they are, with mechanisms to promote responsible gaming, for us to try to intervene early before the problem gets out of hand,” he added.