Wall Street Journal – Singapore’s government is looking to restrict online gambling and plans to seek public feedback on ways it can regulate the practice as it gains in popularity among citizens and tourists and draws increasingly large amounts of taxable income.
According to Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs, the restrictions would include “blocking of remote gambling websites, blocking of payments to remove gambling operators as well as prohibiting advertisements that promote remote gambling.”
The full list of measures will be determined during a public consultation that will last until Jan. 10, it said. Remote gambling refers to the use of devices, such as mobile phones and computers, to access gambling websites.
At a symposium on casino regulation last week, Mr. S Iswaran, Singapore’s second minister for home affairs, trade and industry, emphasized the need to “maintain law and order and to minimize the potential harm, especially to the young and vulnerable,” as the reason for the proposed restrictions.
He did not specify how the restrictions would be carried out, which could prove tricky since many gambling websites are registered overseas.
However, he did say that Singapore would follow an approach used by other cities, including Hong Kong, that allow a limited form of specifically licensed remote gambling through a regulator.
