Singapore and Thailand plan to liberalize online gambling

Between Macao, Singapore and soon the Philippines or even Vietnam, Asia is becoming the part of the world where gambling is the most successful.
Yet, these territories rely almost exclusively on land-based casinos, online gambling being far behind still.
Even so, certain countries are working on law projects for liberalizing this activity.
This is especially the case for Japan but also for Singapore and Thailand.
Actually, S. Iswaran (Singapore’s Internal Affairs Minister) announced lately that the Government is actually working for on laws of controlling online gambling.
A similar project is also being announced in Thailand.
Even if he is being looked at with hostility, it is still a relevant matter.
For 2012, the online gambling market in Singapore reached 342 million dollars.
It should exceed 518 million dollars in 2017.
Despite this huge growth, there is still no law to control this activity.
This is the reason for which the Government of the country wants to adopt soon some laws especially since more and more offshore companies are coming on the Singaporean market which becomes very dynamic.
In Thailand, the offer for online gambling is pretty limited because only some bets suggested by the National Lottery or by the Royal Bangkok Sports Club by a 1935 law.
This doesn’t stops though the existence of a huge illegal market estimated 3,3 billiards of dollars.
Thereby, the Government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra suggested to the Parliament a regulatory reform, 2 years ago, having as a goal the upgrade and the expansion of gambling in the country but several elements of the proposition have started a strong political resistance.
The project still stands no matter what happens in the country.