“It is unconstitutional to prevent Muslims from gambling. The responsibility of government does not extend to making Muslims pious or religious,” he said yesterday.
In a series of tweets, he added that any efforts to stop Muslims from gambling by Muslim leaders are “hypocritical”.
“If Malacca is serious on checking Muslims who gamble, (they should) go to Crown Casino in Melbourne, Las Vegas or London. Don’t punish four-digit buyers like me.
“I like to buy Sports Toto when the proceeds were used to help sports and charity. Then, Islamic leaders decided to be generous to Vincent (Tan).
“These Muslim leaders are actually hypocrites. They pretend to be pious by preventing khalwat or buying four-digit (lottery). They do much worse,” he said.
Zaid was referring to Berjaya Corporation Bhd’s Vincent Tan who is also known for leading the gambling industry.
Yesterday, the Malacca government said it intends to place enforcement officers at licenced gambling premises round-the-clock as a last-ditch effort to stop Muslims in the state from gambling.
Lottery company Sports Toto had been owned by the government and proceeds went to sports development.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration sold Sports Toto to Tan in 1985 following criticism that Sports Toto was not contributing enough to sports development.
Contributions from Sports Toto to sports development remains very small. In 2009, it contributed less than 2 percent of its takings to the National Sports Council.
Msiakini News
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