No Slots in the Cafe Room

The online slots and casino debate is all over the world, and we will now take a look at the situation in Malaysia, where citizens frequent almost 250 licensed cybercafés. Lately there has been illegal gambling activity taking place at various cybercafés, which are of course meant for people to causally access the internet, to check email or current events. Not only is online gambling illegal in the country, but these cafes are being abused by the owners, who often exploit the poor and the young kids who are just looking for some quick cash. Often these cash deals come at a high price for these people, since the café operators know that they won’t be able to make the payments, of keep up with the financial demand of gambling addiction.

In a common thread for most countries that have outlawed online casinos, Malaysia is one that has lost all control. While their legislation attempts to control the activity, people have found ways around the ban, and it doing so put themselves in unsafe situations that are difficult for the government to regulate. Furthermore, with online slots action, there is always the issue of underage access to the websites, which is yet another component to an already complicated matter.

Malaysia has threatened all cybercafés to stop all their questionable practices immediately, and has given out a generous month-long deadline for the cafes to comply. We’ll see if that works.

The situation in Malaysia is similar to that of the United States, where a controversial 2006 law was passed to outlaw financial transactions for online gaming. Either way, people have still found ways to play on off-shore gambling websites, and have more easily gotten into trouble because there are no resources for an illegal activity.

Back to August 2008 Archive.