Online Gambling In Malaysia

I wouldn’t call Malaysia the ‘mecca‘ of gambling in Asia… but it’s close!

From semi-legal gambling rings grossing $1bn+ to gigantic casino-resorts like Genting Highlands, that are built into mountain peeks and attract visitors from all over SE Asia – Malaysia has embraced the age old activity of gambling more then it’s neighboring countries, with religious laws presenting the only restrictions (Muslim Malaysian residents are banned from gambling, enforced by sharia law شريعة as it is against their religion).

Gambling and wagering is a regulated activity in Malaysia, but of course OnlineGambling.co is here to teach you the path to hassle-free online gambling in Malaysia or, for that matter, anywhere in the Asia Pacific region.

Is Online Gambling Illegal In Malaysia?

Online gambling is not illegal in Malaysia, but it is regulated by government and semi-religious authorities. Specifically, documents like the Civil Law Act 1956 and the Malaysian Contracts Act shed light on these regulations by stating that all gaming and wagering contracts are void.

The Civil law act of Malaysia states:

Agreement by way of gaming or wagering to be null and void
26. (1) All contracts or agreements, whether by parol or in writing, by way of gaming or wagering shall be null and void.
(2) No action shall be brought or maintained in any Court for recovering any sum of money or valuable thing alleged to be won upon any wager or which has been deposited in the hands of any person to abide the event on which any wager has been made.

The Contracts Act states:

Agreements by way of wager void
31. (1) Agreements by way of wager are void; and no suit shall be brought for recovering anything alleged to be won on any wager, or entrusted to any person to abide the result of any game or other uncertain event on which any wager is made.

In laymen’s terms, this means that contracts of wagering, gambling or betting are not enforceable by law. So a bet between two people on an ASEAN basketball match that is not honored by the loosing party, can not be taken to court – the cheated winner of the bet is, essentially, on his own!

The Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 states (in relation to people using gambling houses, which is a blanket term for participation in most forms of gambling):

Gaming in common gaming house
6. (1) Any person who games in a common gaming house shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding **five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

The long and short of it is that physical, or live, gambling in Malaysia is regulated to the point of being illegal, but Malaysian legal acts have not been amended to address online gambling nor has any specific I-gaming legislation been put in place. Malaysian players gamble online without hassle. There have been no cases of individuals being prosecuted or clamped down on due to gambling online.

The fact that there is only one single, fully authorized physical casino in Malaysia means that there are groups who set up unregulated & illegal gambling dens disguised as internet cafes, these are regularly shut down by Malaysian police. This is due to the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953, which states that:

(1) Any person who:
(a) being the owner or occupier or having the use temporarily or otherwise thereof keeps or uses a place as a common gaming house; or
(b) permits a place of which he is owner or occupier or of which he has the use temporarily or otherwise to be kept or used by another person as a common gaming house;
(c) has the care or management of or in any manner assists in the management of a place kept or used as a common gaming;
shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than five thousand ringgit and not more than fifty thousand ringgit and shall also be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and in addition shall be liable to a fine of not less than five thousand ringgit and not more than fifty thousand ringgit for every gaming machine seized.

This law also applies to those found in, or in some way using the services of, a gaming house. I would personally advise against accessing online gambling websites from public locations like internet cafes in Malaysia, to avoid running into problems.

Online Casino’s Who Operate Out Of Malaysia

There are no online casino, poker, sports betting or other wagering companies who operate out of Malaysia, but there are several operators who offer services to Malaysian based individuals looking to gamble online, we provide details online casinos for Malaysians below.

Best Online Casinos For Malaysian Gamblers

Online Live Roulette & Live Casinos

There are two major online casino operators that we can recommend for live dealer casino games playable by those located in Malaysia: Bodog88

⇒ www.Bodog88.com, our #1 choice for live dealer casino game offerings to Malaysian players, offer many different Malaysian friendly banking deposit and withdrawal options. Specifically, they offer local bank transfers for depositing and withdrawing money to and from your Bodog88 account. For THB bank customers, they can deposit via FastDebit and the processing time is instant whereas a local bank transfer is available for withdrawal within 24 hours.

TWD bank customers may use Moneybookers/Skrill for both deposit and withdrawals to Bodog88. Deposit is instant and withdrawals can take up to 24 hours. Click2Pay is a solid backup option for deposits & withdrawals from Malaysian bank account.

Bodog88 also offer Chinese traditional (簡體字) & simplified (简体字) language options, alongside Ringgit (MYR) currency options.

Maybank Deposits & Withdrawals To Online Casinos

It seems that Maybank, one of the most popular banking choices in Malaysia, is commonly known to block deposits and transfers to well-known sports betting and casino websites. If you are a Maybank customer and you want to play poker, casino games or bet on sports online, we have two recommendations:

– Hop on Live Chat with the customer support team at a reputable gambling operator, confirm with them that you can deposit or withdraw money to and from your Maybank account – you do not want to waste time having your payments delayed and rejected.

– Avoid the problem all together and deposit money from your Maybank account directly to an e-wallet or virtual credit card service like Entropay. Pretty much every online casino, sports betting, bingo or poker website accepets payments & deposits to these cards so you can play as much as you like.

Malaysia 4-Digits (4D) Lottery Betting

Originating from Kedah in 1951, four digits is an extremely popular Malaysian lottery game. It’s a fixed-odds game that you play by choosing any number between 0000 and 9999. 23 winning numbers are drawn every time. If one of the numbers matches the one that the player has bought, a prize is won. A draw is conducted to select these winning numbers.

There are numerous 4D jackpots, run by several different operators. In Malaysia, Magnum 4D, who operate out of Penang, are the most popular operation with their classic 4D option with big and small forecasts. They were also the first legalized operator licensed by the Malaysian Government. Other operators include:

Sports Toto: They offer basic 4D gameplay that works the same way as Magnum and Da Ma Cai (below), as well as 5D and 6D games. Unlike 4D, 5D and 6D do have no “Big” and “Small” Forecasts.

Da Ma Cai:

Malaysian 4D results

For 4D results you can visit the official Magnum, Sports Toto and Da Ma Cai websites. Variants such as 5D & 6D are also covered on the official sites.

Playing Poker Online Guide For Malaysians

As with online casinos and sports betting services in Malaysia, poker lies in a legal grey area. There is only one fully licensed physical poker room in Malaysia which is the Casino De Genting, located in the Genting Highlands. But for those looking to play Poker online – wether they’re a grinder, a casual player, an expat living in Malaysia who just wants to play a few hands with mates back home or anything similar – they are going to have to get creative to successfully play online poker from within Malaysia.

The Malaysian authorities have not attempted to crack down on online poker players, instead they have left this responsibility up to the banks, who are not allowed to process any transactions related to poker websites. Here are the workarounds that work at the moment, most involve the use of ewallet services:

NETELLER – you can deposit funds to most popular poker sites like PartyPoker using Neteller, however many banks in malaysia block deposits to the ewallet service. A way around this is to sign up for their Nett Mastercard, enabling you to cash out directly from your local ATM. To deposit money you can buy Neteller funds from other players (often using Paypal and other Malaysian friendly services) on player forums like PokerKaki.

EntroPay – A solid ewallet Visa and Mastercard service that allows you to deposit and withdraw money to and from your Malaysian bank account, we recommend EntroPay due to their ease-of-use for Malaysians alone.

Moneybookers (Skrill) no longer works as a viable method to deposit and withdraw funds from online poker websites, as they have been blocked by nearly all Malaysian banks due to their known ties with gambling websites.

Withdrawing & Depositing Money on Poker websites for Malaysians

EntroPay is generally considered the most consistent way for Malaysians to deposit, withdraw and move their winnings and other cash between poker websites, as well as casinos and sports betting sites. Entropay is a virtual credit card that you can use wherever Visa card is accepted. Money can only be loaded into USD ($), EUR (€) or GBP (£) currency.

The Malaysian government have been ordering Malay banks to decline direct bank transfer payments and withdrawals from casinos, poker website operators and sports betting websites recently. Cashing out from poker websites is still possible via check, but this can be expensive as an option and cheques can take 15 days or more to arrive via Malaysian courier. My suggestion is to use EntroPay to withdraw and deposit your money to play Poker in Malaysia;

Options for withdrawing EntoPay funds in Malaysia

Transfer funds to bank account – The most straight forward option, simply login to EntroPay, click EntroPay Card, and then click Transfer Funds. There you can select the option ‘new bank account’ and follow the given instructions.

Withdraw funds from an ATM – EntroPay offer plastic physical MasterCards for a one-off fee of USD $9.99/GBP £4.99/EUR €7.49. With the plastic card, you can simply withdraw your money from any Malaysian cash point. Pay attention to the additional fees that the ATM operators add to the transaction, as it does vary between operators/locations.

Spending EntroPay Online – You can use your Entropay virtual Visa card or your physical plastic mastercard to buy items online, like you would a regular credit card. Just look for online stores who accept VISA or MasterCard and buy yourself something nice!

Best Online Malaysian Sportsbooks & Betting Sites

There are no fully licensed, legal online sportsbooks in Malaysia. So unless Malaysian gamblers want to hop over the border into Singapore, where restrictions on gambling (both live and online) are a lot lighter, then they will be forced to use foreign sports betting websites in order to place wagers on different sports.

OnlineGambling recommends the sportsbooks listed below, all of the websites listed accept sports bets in Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) and we have included notes on the websites various language and currency options available.

Genting Highlands (Tanah Tinggi Genting) Casino Resort

Sometimes called ‘Resorts World Genting’, Genting Highlands is Malaysia’s only fully licensed land casino, and is a marvel for onlookers as it is a huge resort perched on the side of a mountain! There’s a theme park included to keep the kids entertained, but the real attraction is fully legal gambling for the non-muslim (they are prohibited from gambling under Sharia Law) Malaysian citizen. Malaysia’s city of entertainment is also located in the Malaysian highlands, so is a lot cooler then the steamy, tropical weather main land.

Casino games like roulette, baccarat and Chinese classics such as Tai Sai and Pai Gow can all be played in any of Genting highlands casino rooms:

• Monte Carlo Casino
• Hollywood Casino
• StarWorld Casino

If you are visiting from outside Malaysia, be warned: not a drop of alcohol is served in the entire resort!

Maybank Malaysian Asian Open Golf Betting

The 2013 Maybank Malaysian Open (the 2012 open started on April 12th) will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club and will play host to many of the best golfers from Malaysia, and the world. Prize money in 2012 was USD $2.5million, it is predicted to be $3 million in 2013