Malaysia Starts War on SMS Gambling Promotions

Malaysia terminate 8k cellphone numbers as they start the battle against SMS gambling promotions.

Malaysia has continued their efforts to curb illegal gambling in the country with another unconventional measure, having decided to cancel all cell phone numbers that were found to have sent text messages inviting the country residents to take part in illegal gambling.

According to the Bernama media outlet, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have instructed the country’s telecom companies to terminate over 8,000 mobile numbers for promoting illegal gambling.

Datuk Jailani Johari, the deputy minister in charge of communications, revealed that the government had no choice but to take drastic measures after getting more than 400 complaints about the gambling text messages. The government then left it to the authorities to conduct further investigation.

Malaysia Continue to Ban Illegal Websites

The only reason why these gambling SMS appeared in the first place is due to the fact that Malaysia had started the war on illegal gambling websites, denying access to more than 2,200 online venues in 2015 alone.

They then blocked another 399 similar sites in February 2016, meaning the country’s efforts to crack down illegal gambling operators are not slowing down.

The government demanded from the telecom companies that they take stricter measures to ban gambling text messages few months ago, asking them to ensure that new users sign up for phone numbers using fingerprint identification so as to prevent any abuse.

Malaysia has already done a lot in an attempt to prevent the residents from taking part in illegal gambling activity, but the latest reports are enough to suggest they are faced with new challenges.

The government plans to introduce new gambling laws in the near future that would introduce even stricter penalties for illegal operators, and it remains to be seen whether that will change anything.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has been working closely with other departments and also Malaysian financial institutions to prevent money laundering and stop the earnings deriving from illegal gambling activities from entering legal channels.