Mainly Muslim Malaysia has legalized sports betting, a move supporters claim will curb illegal gambling and boost government coffers.
Ascot Sports, a company controlled by influential tycoon Vincent Tan, has been granted a licence that will allow it to offer odds in time for the hugely popular English Premier League season.
“Ascot Sports has been re-issued the sports betting licence by the Ministry of Finance which was first issued in 1987,” gaming group Berjaya — of which Tan is a major shareholder — said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Berjaya, a conglomerate with holdings ranging from lottery to casino operations, will acquire a 70 percent stake in Ascot Sports by paying Tan 525 million ringgit (US$164 million).
The 1987 permit was quickly rescinded and an attempt to revive it several years ago failed because of opposition to gambling, which is forbidden in Islam.
Berjaya said that legalizing sports betting will curb illegal bookmaking and bring huge revenues to the government.
“By some estimates, the illegal sports betting market in Malaysia is thought to be as much as RM20 billion per annum,” it said. “This represents a tremendous loss of tax revenue to the government which Ascot Sports hopes to be able to mitigate.”
The company will launch products based on internationally popular sporting events including football, basketball, motor racing, tennis and golf.
“Ascot Sports will also offer telephone betting convenience and only adults above 21 years old and non-Muslims will be allowed to open a telephone betting account,” Berjaya said.
A conservative Islamic party is among the groups that have criticized plans to award the sports gambling licence, which they fear could promote betting and increase debt.
Its youth wing will hold a protest outside a mosque today in the capital Kuala Lumpur after afternoon prayers.
“There will be a big demonstration. We oppose the government’s decision to award the sports gambling licence. We want the government to cancel the licence,” Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) youth wing secretary Kamarulzaman Mohamad said.
“It is a social and religious sin to gamble,” PAS treasurer Hatta Ramli said. “We cannot accept it. It will break up families and attract the young into this vice activity.”
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association president N. Marimuthu said the government should seek other ways to raise revenue.
“There are better ways to generate income for the nation. I do not believe we have to resort to legalizing sports gambling,” he said.
Government officials have said they plan to channel the revenue generated from legalizing betting into sports development, but that the move will not eradicate match-fixing which has long blighted soccer in Asia.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS