accounting & finance

A lot of you may agree that gambling is morally incorrect – Especially when we’re living in an Islamic culture that prohibits us from gambling – Legally, at least. If we take a look around us, many of our friends are caught in this habit; some caught lady luck, most lose a big portion of their life savings because of this. In any way, you cannot deny that excessive gambling would shake one’s financials greatly – Whether it’s his savings volume, cash flow or debts owed.

In short, if you’re in Malaysia, it’s unlawful for you to:

1. Gamble online in any fashion;
2. Use your credit card, privately labeled debit card or any other foreign cards to gamble online;
3. Use any of your Malaysian bank account to make transactions to online gambling sites;

In April 2009, The Association of Banks, Malaysia (ABM) disclosed that 0.2% of credit card transactions made from January – February 2009, just FOUR (4) months, are online gambling transactions. While The Malay Mail believes that online gambling may hit up to RM100 billion in 2009, there are no published proof of records by banks or ABM – Reason given, competitiveness.

The Malay Mail also commented that Ahmad Sofian, Federal Criminal Investigation Department principal assistant director SAC declined to comment when “asked if banks had lodged reports with regard to illegal transactions by their clients”. Of course, in the financial and business point of view, who will?

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) explicitly states that credit card issuers (banks/financial institutions) who offer credit cards to consumers should run due diligence on merchants to check if there are any unlawful activities going on. Should that be considered as consumer protection?

Will online gambling be a problem in Malaysia?

When you take a look at notions passed by other countries, such as the US – “In 2006, the Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, which made it illegal for financial institutions to transfer funds between punters and online-gambling sites”. It’s already illegal for Americans then to gamble online – And gambling businesses went elsewhere.

Yet, the volume of online gambling hasn’t changed much after lawful implementations – Even four years after that. Today, a huge number of gamblers gamble online because they have the access to it; because they can; because they want to. Transactions in billions of dollars passed annually – And would a country’s economy be spruced by legalizing gambling?

Fun gambling financial fact: US$335 billion is recorded to be transacted in the legalized gambling arena globally.

In our Malaysian culture, we’re taught from young that gambling is not something you should look into – Or even bother trying. Yet, thousands of us Malaysians are still into it. The only legalized gambling arena in Malaysia, Genting Highlands, would be the place not to go – And it’s only for its theme parks and cooling wind.

Still, with the presence of the Internet and private proxies that route Internet connections elsewhere out of Malaysia, online gambling thrives among youths to senior Malaysian citizens.

The desire to stop people from gambling online could be taking away human’s second nature – After drugs, cigarettes, prostitution and drinks. But could regulated gambling proved workable in Malaysia?

Regulated Gambling in Malaysia?

In Britain, online gambling is legal – But taxed and highly regulated by the government. When we look closely into financial transactions by countries of whom governments ban gambling, a user needs to place trust on its ‘intermediary’ or ‘bookie’ to make transactions – Whether it’s performed through a foreign bank account with a branch situated in Malaysia through wire-transfer or TT.

These makes online gamblers worried to the point of trust, only. According to a website, Mr. Rais Yatim figures it’ll be better for Malaysia to legalize gambling than to ban gambling – Regardless of whether it’s done online or in slot machines, in order to curb gambling in Malaysia. The article also suggests that controlled gambling (regulated) will be a good option for the Malaysian government in order to reduce gambling.

In your opinion, would this be a good move for Malaysia?

Making-Money-Out-of-Regulated-Gambling.gov.my

Question remains – Would the government cash in additional profits from regulated gambling, thanks to law-passing gambling activities in a controlled environment, as suggested by the article stated above? Because regulated gambling means controlled gambling and when controlled gambling comes into play, taxes and dividend cuts can be diverted to the government, how is this in any way not profitable?

Let’s fathom the days of Genting’s casino until present, look at some of its income figures (if you know how to look, you can get an approximate value here) and if you’re a business/finance person, you’ll be able to figure it out.

Usually, nobody would tell you what’s financially in-store for them when a project closes. But when you read between the lines, the facts and hints are often shouting at your face.

Even by playing SimCity 3000, you can see that passing the notion on gambling makes your finances grow and residents not happy.