The Betting Act of 1952 only really applies to around 40% of the country’s population (and visiting tourists etc.) and this act was primarily directed towards sports betting, and bookmaking whereas the Common Gaming Houses Act of 1953 applies to most other forms of gambling. Internet café owners can even be prosecuted for allowing customers to gamble online. If the laws that apply to gambling are broken it’s considered a serious offence under Sharia law and it comes with a heavy sentence of up to two years behind bars.įor the rest of the country, certain forms of gambling are permitted at specially licensed venues, but those running illegal gambling operations at unlicensed venues are breaking the law. The dual justice system (both secular and religious) means that gambling is prohibited for the majority of the country who are bound by Sharia law, but the non-muslims that also includes mostly ethnic Chinese, Indian, and others are not bound by Sharia law. To this day though gambling is extremely popular with local citizens (the ones that can legally gamble) and with tourists and there is still a huge gambling market in Malaysia. There has always been a strange kind of two-tier system in place in Malaysia, and it still means that there’s one rule for Muslims and another for non-muslims. Malaysia also used to have land-based venues with gambling arcades and electronic horse racing machines, but these were banned by the government in 2000. For example, it has also been interpreted to include online gambling as well, even though the legislation stems from the early ’50s.

The new legislation that was introduced at the time even prohibited telecommunications and any other similar ways of being able to place a bet between a punter and a gambling venue, but this could be interpreted in several ways. The Betting Act in Malaysia first came in to effect back in 1952 and it pretty much outlawed almost every form of gambling imaginable.

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