Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club can offer online betting in next two months
Photo: Digital Trends
Singapore Pools (Pools) and Singapore Turf Club (STC) are allowed to offer online betting services for their current products, the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Thursday (29 September).
Pools and STC are found suitable to be exempted from the Remote Gambling Act, which came into effect in February last year. The Act prohibits online betting activities and gives the authorities the powers to tackle online betting.
MHA said the operators will be issued exemption certificates, which will be valid for three years, when they launch their online gambling services in the next two months. According to media reports, Singapore Pools will launch its website-based betting services on 25 October and Turf Club will launch its online betting platform “iTote” on 15 November.
As part of the conditions for the exemption, the two operators can only offer online betting for their existing products: 4D and Toto lotteries, and football and F1 sports betting for Pools; and horse-race betting for STC. They are not allowed to offer casino-style games or poker.
MHA has blocked several hundred online betting sites, and bank accounts and credit card transactions linked to online betting payments since the Act took effect.
But it added that a total ban on online betting is not “straightforward”.
“A complete ban would only serve to drive remote gambling underground, making it harder to detect, and exacerbate the associated law and order and social concerns,” MHA said.
Apart from limiting online betting to their current products, the operators also have to comply conditions in the areas of social safeguards, law and order and IT system integrity.
Some of the social safeguards include disallowing persons below 21 years old and those excluded from the casinos to open online betting accounts, banning gambling on credit, and setting up daily spending and funding limits.
The operators will have to implement responsible betting measures including allowing voluntary self-exclusion for individuals, providing information packages on responsible gambling, notifications on daily deposits and winnings/losses, alerting players if they exceed 75 per cent of his spending limit, and providing monthly statements of betting activities.
Failure in compliance by an operator could result in a fine of up to $1 million on each infringement, restriction on the operator’s online betting services and the revocation or suspension of its exemption certificate.
In the area of law and order, the operators have to implement robust systems to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
