Official language: Malay
Population: 27,730,000
Currency: Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 5.0114 MYR
1 GBP = 5.3748 MYR
1 USD = 3.3992 MYR

Poker in Malaysia
While poker in Malaysia is growing more and more popular each year, there are not many places to play it. The country has only one casino, and even though it is large and offers many different kinds of poker, it is still not much for an entire country. Games do take place behind closed doors, but just how many, nobody can be sure.

Tournaments happen regularly at the country's only casino. The Casino de Genting usually offers small weekly events, but a few times every year, large Texas Hold 'Em or Three Card Draw events are held. The first prize for the biggest annual Malaysian poker tournament at the Genting is 50,000 Malaysian ringgits, or about 11,000 Euros. Other tournaments do happen in Malaysia, but they are illegal. Events like the PokerMalaysia Championship do not even advertise where they will take place until just before the event to keep from being shut down.

Online Poker in Malaysia
Online poker in Malaysia is also illegal. The Malaysian government does not give licenses to operate online poker sites or other internet gambling sites from Malaysian soil. They also want to prevent Malaysian players from using foreign poker sites, but this is difficult because these foreign sites are hosted in countries where the Malaysian government has no jurisdiction.

To counter this, the government has tried forcing banks to block transactions to and from foreign online poker rooms, but banks are reluctant to follow the rule as it is expensive to track down every transaction. The government have also been known to go after people who run internet cafes that let their customers gamble on the internet. Customers, however, have never been punished for gambling online in Malaysia.