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Anyone knows whether is it legal to have a game of mahjong in your own house? I am sure during CNY time, it is quite normal to have a few rounds of mahjong or black jack with family members.
What is the law on this matter?
Will i get haul up and be shaved as well?
Yup... pretty strange days indeed.
I remember reading in the Star, a top Police officer stating that mahjong is ok but no blackjack or poker sessions... :confused: Another case of cultural "shove-it" by the authorities or what....
But seriously, at times; police has got nothing better to do but to raise the ire of the regular folks :mad:
*come to think of it.... imagine if you're alone... argue with a cop - he shoots you - you die - he claims self defense - plants a knife - OCPD back him (as always!) - gets off scot free - you "mati katak" - end of story* ( a possibility?)
Yesterday I played ginrummi .. whether play mahjong, blackjack or poker in your own hse .. i guess that's oke ..
Police won't go hse to hse to check on evryone whether we're playin' wat, how much is the bet or something like that ..
Gambling at home during CNY .. is a very low profile thing .. unless u gamble outside your porch area and those police happens to pass by then surely kena "kantoi" ma ...
I fully support the Independent Police Commission establishment. Last night while i was watching the evening news, the establishment was being challenge within the force themselves. One high ranking officer said since there is a disciplinary board in the force therefore there is no need to have the commission.
I have been searching for the online news to put the link here, can’t find this report but instead this. What happened to the rest of the interview is your guess as good as mine.
I was wondering about your question until i saw this article.Quote:
Originally Posted by kudat
Quote:
Originally Posted by LMei
so, anyone who gets haul up to a 'lock up' now potentially will be shaven? Also, playing mahjong with friends, with plastic chips, (not cash) is a crime?
Goodness....
I suspect Kudat was referring to this article to air his concern as per the teh tarik thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by LMei
Just like everything else in bolehland, as long as you don't do it in public and annoy your neighbours , no one is going to disturb you. :)
Perhaps the guidelines issued before might help?!
Quote:
Monday, 27 October 2003
Chor: Get permit to play mahjong
Chinese associations must apply for permits from the district office if they want to hold mahjong sessions in their premises, said Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung. He said getting such permits should not be a problem as mahjong was not considered an illegal form of gambling.
“But the associations concerned must do it in such a way that no cash is involved and mahjong games at their premises are only for members,” he said yesterday. He added that the Government understood that mahjong was just one of the activities which associations organised for their members.
The Registrar of Societies (ROS), he said would not act against associations that organised mahjong sessions unless they were held on a large scale. “If it’s only two or three tables, I don’t see any problems,” he said..........
Various Chinese associations had recently expressed concern about organising mahjong sessions in their premises after 10 mahjong players and three of their friends were jailed for one day and fined RM1,500 each by the Kajang magistrate court for gambling in a coffee shop in Semenyih.
Maybe we should start playing with peanuts or kind.
Cannot make detainees perform nude squat anymore...so they devised something else to humiliate detainees. :mad:Quote:
Originally Posted by kudat
I think Malaysia's law on common gaming houses is the same as that in Singapore. The key is to examine the political reason underlying the introduction of this law many decades ago and see the social and economic setting of the old Malaya (the law was passed in 1953 mind you), and how perhaps gaming had caused untold miseries to the Chinese community generally, mahjong or non-mahjong. I personally cannot imagine why liquours and booze were once banned in the 1920s in USA and enforced with the same rigour as drugs enforcement.Quote:
Originally Posted by USJ27Resident
Malaysia's Common Gaming Houses Ordinance 1953 (Malaysia) is rather strict. I cannot stress too strongly that in the end, there must be a political will to change the inescapable perception that this law is too strict, draconian or that it has outlived its purpose in modern day Malaysia. It is indeed strict. The law defines "common gaming house" as any place kept or used for gaming to which the public or ANY class of the public has or may have access, and any place kept for habitual gaming, whether the public or any class of the public has or may have access thereto or not, and any place kept or used for the purpose of a public lottery whether the public has access or not.
You see, the words "kept or used for the purpose" may become critical in court, if you are charged.
In any proceedings under that law, where any 'stuff' for gaming is found in any place or upon any person, it shall be presumed,that the place is a common gaming house and that it is so kept, used or permitted to be used by the owner or occupier thereof ....
It matters not if it's Mahjong or not for "gaming" means the playing of any game of chance or of mixed chance and skill for money or money’s worth (but the minister may prescribed a list of "illegal games" -- check that out.
The Minister (YB Noh Omar? :D ) may from time to time by notification in the Gazette declare any game, method, device, scheme or competition specified or described in the notification to be a game of chance or a mixed game of chance and skill for the purposes of this Act and thereupon it shall be an irrebuttable presumption of law that that game, method, device, scheme or competition is a game of chance ....
Tough law indeed. :(
""In any proceedings under that law, where any 'stuff' for gaming is found in any place or upon any person, it shall be presumed,that the place is a common gaming house and that it is so kept, used or permitted to be used by the owner or occupier thereof ....""
if i understand this (and i am certainly trying!!), if the police should raid my house now, and found a deck of cards and a mahjong set, i could be in trouble??
I should also not have any dice on my person?
If no gambling is allowed in the country, then why are there 4D, genting highlands, sms quizzes (with prize money) on national TV. Aren't these a form of gambling ?Quote:
Originally Posted by kudat
I thought I remember reading an article on the police knowing how to differentiate a game of CNY fun between family and friends to those with serious gambling motives. (Read this some time last week but cannot trace that article). So why this?? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by KelvC
IF it is illegal to play mahjong, is it legal to shave their heads?
1. It is manifestly illegal to shave the heads of detainees under the gaming laws.Quote:
Originally Posted by JackRyan1975
2. Friendly gaming is palbably outside the scope of the Act.
3. (Quote) where any 'stuff' for gaming is found in any place or upon any person, it shall be presumed,that the place is a common gaming house..." That it is "so kept" merely creates a REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION in any trial. You may still adduce evidence in court (and your task is lighter than the police) that you are not having betting games in a HOUSE SO KEPT for that purpose.
4. (Quote)" it is quite normal to have a few rounds of mahjong or black jack with family members". This is true. You cannot be convicted for what apparently is a friendly game - people even bet over a friendly game of CHESS, like I do sometimes :D with my wife, kekeke. (eat that inspector) :p
5. (Quote) "that mahjong is ok but no blackjack or poker sessions... Another case of cultural "shove-it" by the authorities or what....". This is the argument like the purported moral policing by Bandaraya or the Religious Authorities... It's one thing to arrest, it's another to convict. But people cannot be subjected to the whims and fancies of police - particularly on a law so technical such as the one under discussion. The worry has always been that "we arrest you now - and you can talk to the judge during trial" - in my view the time is up for a review by Parliament. :D