Online Gambling in Malaysia: A Legal Analysis

Abstract

Gambling is a serious issue that comes with wide-reaching social, political, and economic consequences if not tightly monitored by governmental authorities. The advent of technology has provided gambling operators a virtual platform that caters to gamblers over the internet. Malaysian legislation that deals with gambling was drafted before online gambling came about. Malaysia has yet to introduce any amendment to existing legislation to better equip it with sufficiently clear wording and provisions for the purpose of regulating online gambling. The aims of this article are to (1) examine the prevalence of online gambling in Malaysia today and (2) analyze the application of existing legislation to regulate online gambling. In this article, the above aims are analysed from a legal perspective based on a qualitative doctrinal research method involving journal articles, relevant news articles, and Malaysian legislation. The finding of this article establishes that unregulated online gambling is growing into a pressing issue in Malaysia and relevant local legislation needs to be updated to better deal with its challenges. This article is not meant to be an all-encompassing thesis but to serve as an introductory guide into this niche area of the law.