Ya Aiyyuhal Madani : In Malaysia, slot machine players risk losing it all to ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling - South China Morning Post

 Thank you to a long time reader  RB for sending me the link to this news article in the South China Morning Post.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3249118/malaysia-slot-machine-players-risk-losing-it-all-crack-cocaine-gambling

• In Malaysia, slot machine players risk losing it all to ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling
• Large casinos dominate Malaysia’s domestic gambling scene, but slot machine clubs are where player addiction quietly pervades, observers say
• Online gambling sites have also exploded in recent years, causing more Malaysians to be trapped in a vicious circle of debt

Beyond two wary doormen and through a plush reception, the “G--d V---ey Club” near a Kuala Lumpur shopping centre is doing brisk business, an adult funland of slot machines, where hostesses offer free drinks to gamblers in Malaysia who, for an entry bet of just 50 ringgit (US$10), can stand to win a jackpot.

But the majority lose – for some, all their ringgit – at the rows of slot machines where the hours pass fast and cash is quickly guzzled by the brightly lit consoles.

OSTB : RB included the following comments :

About 200 gambling clubs in the country offering highly addictive slot machines including to Muslims, licensed by the MoF and it takes a foreign news agency to cover the story. Local news agencies did not notice the elephant in the room?

Drive around PJ/KL/Penang and you can see these clubs in many neighbourhoods if you look closely, purposely kept low profile from the outside.

OSTB :  This issue of slot machines has never really gone away. They have been there for a very long time. 

What this means is that despite the five changes in government in six years nothing has changed. Its just same old same old. Of course there is money in all this. 

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

 The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.