According to The Straits Times on Sept. 15, 2016, legal online betting services could be made available in Singapore as early as the second half of October this year.

Singapore Pools and the Singapore Turf Club (STC) are anticipating receiving the approval from the authorities to launch their online betting services very soon.

If it goes through, they would be the first to be exempted from the Remote Gambling Act, which came into effect in February last year. The Act criminalises a host of remote gambling activities, which includes phone betting.

However, on May 31 this year, it was already reported by ST that Singapore Pools had its first online betting website up and running about two weeks before the start of Euro 2016, which kicked off in France on June 10.

It was just waiting for approval to start operating. It did not manage to launch in time for that particular competition.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told ST then it was evaluating applications from Singapore Pools and STC -- a statement which the ministry is still using when queried by the media about the status of applications.

All systems ready to go

It was reported that Singapore Pools had hired British betting operator OpenBet to help replace its website with one which can offer sports betting.

OpenBet provided online gambling software for major bookmakers overseas, such as William Hill, Paddy Power and Betfair.

To qualify for exemption under the Act, MHA said the entity applying had to be not for profit and one which contributes to public, social and charitable causes in Singapore.

Both STC and Singapore Pools qualify as they are not-for-profit organisations and are operated by the Singapore Totalisator Board (Tote Board), a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance.

Their gaming surpluses are channelled to the Tote Board to fund charitable and social causes, such as distributing monetary rewards for medalled Olympians and Paralympians.

Social workers have expressed concern that online betting services will attract younger punters and cause more social problems, such as stealing to fund their addiction.

What has not been debated more robustly in public though is how exemption criteria appeared to have been written to specifically accommodate the existing structure of Singapore Pools and STC.

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