Singapore online gambling ban enforced next week
Bill prohibiting online gambling takes effect on Monday with exemptions for not-for-profit sports betting operators
A bill to prohibit most forms of online gambling in Singapore is set to take effect next week, the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs has announced.
The Remote Gambling Act was approved by the Singapore parliament on 7 October and is to officially come into force on Monday 2 February.
The new bill will see all casino and poker games banned and will only allow limited forms of online sports betting offered by not-for-profit operators which are based in the sovereign city-state and contribute to social causes.
“The objectives of regulating remote gambling are to maintain law and order and to minimise the potential harm of remote gambling, especially to young persons and other vulnerable persons,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
The Bill was first proposed in November last year after officials lamented the lack of jurisdiction its previous gambling regulation had over online operations.
As a result of the Remote Gambling Act, all websites which provide or advertise remote gambling services will be blocked, as well as all payment transactions related to online gambling.
The country’s Media Development Authority (MDA) also clarified that social games would not come under the scope of the new Act following concerns expressed at the bill’s approval stage in October.
“MDA wishes to reiterate that the Act does not cover games which do not, as part of the game design, enable players to receive money or money’s worth consequent to the outcome of that game,” the government department said in a statement today.