Gaming and gambling industries are two fields that no one expected would underperform in the first half of 2023. Still, casinos that are currently operational in Malaysia are facing underwhelming results.
According to some estimates, however, the Malaysian gambling sector will see a significant rise and get back on track in the second half of this year.
So, we’ll delve a bit deeper into why the gambling sector is in the red and why things are not nearly as bad as they appear on the surface.
According to some of the reported numbers of casino operators in Malaysia, the numbers for early 2023 are far weaker than expected.
While Malaysia is one of the fastest-growing economies in this part of the world, the population is predominantly young and tech-savvy. More importantly, about 97% of them have access to the internet. So, the majority of gamblers in the country choose online gambling, the majority of which is offshore gambling, which doesn’t enter the official statistics.
The discouraging numbers regarding Malaysia’s gambling sector are a bit misleading. The local gambling laws are quite restrictive and mostly limited to tourists. Both betting and access to casinos are not available for the Muslim population, which is a huge problem since about 63.5% of people in Malaysia are Muslim (according to the 2020 census).
This means that the Malaysian gambling industry heavily depends on the tourist season. This is also one of the reasons why the expectations that the second part of the season will be better are high. People have more vacation opportunities in the last two quarters of the year, so these numbers will increase.
In other words, instead of focusing on gambling exclusively, this is a problem that flight capacities and the easing of airfares around the globe should fix. It’s also worth remembering that a gasoline price rise affects every form of travel. With currently unstable prices, estimating these future trends accurately is difficult.
As we’ve already stated, the biggest problem with these stats is that they don’t include offshore gambling, a huge industry. While Malaysians have limited betting and gambling opportunities, playing on sites not hosted in Malaysia is legal. So, many players from Malaysia use these shortlisted gambling sites as their main option.
We’re talking about thousands and tens of thousands of players; however, this doesn’t go into any official statistics, which leads to the conclusion that the gambling industry in Malaysia is doing far worse than it is.
While the pandemic is far from our minds, just two years have passed since it was in full swing. During this period, everything digital, contactless, and online has peaked its popularity.
The iGaming and social gaming numbers reached alarming rates; however, these were unprecedented conditions, and this momentum wasn’t fated to last. Some analysts still use figures from 2020 and 2021 as relevant metrics. Compared to this, any numbers would seem disappointing.
