Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has urged Meta and Facebook to address the growing volume of illegal gambling ads and scams, as the government is considering...
Malaysia drafts new legislation to decrease illegal gambling
Malaysia’s government is drafting new legislation to improve gambling regulations and fight against illegal platforms.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof revealed that the goal of the legislation is to decrease illegal gambling activity, as it has long-term negative effects on younger people who are easily able to access digital platforms.
Yusof stated:
“At the federal level, the government is drafting a law to address illegal gambling. God willing, we hope to table it in the next Parliament session.”
With the development of mobile-friendly platforms, smartphones have become the most popular way of accessing iGaming in Malaysia, and authorities expressed concern that most of the gambling platforms were offshore, making enforcement action hard to implement.
Under the new laws, the police would be given more authority to conduct investigations and stop illegal operations, as Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mohamad Zainal Abdullah stressed that it’s important to integrate modern and coordinated systems with monitoring tools that can quickly identify suspicious domains.
The government is discussing two options to move forward with, and the first one is to integrate gaming laws into already existing cybercrime legislation, where they can be treated as part of the wider digital criminal environment. The second proposal is to create a new legal framework for online gambling crimes, which would give clearer definitions and reduce enforcement ambiguity.
Malaysia’s Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil is set to meet with Meta executives on September 22 to discuss the growing issue of illegal online gambling ads on...
