Perlis shuttered its last lottery outlet on March 6, becoming the fourth Malaysian state to phase out gambling.

The Da Ma Cai outlet was located in the border town of Padang Besar, about 57km south-west of Thailand’s Hat Yai.

Its operating licence expired on March 6.

The northern Malaysian state previously had six lottery outlets, but they were closed between July and October 2023 following the state government’s announcement that it would stop renewing operating licences for such outlets.

“Although the closing of betting outlets will lead to economic losses, the state government has social harmony as its main consideration, and in the public’s interest, the state government is willing to sacrifice this annual sum of RM2,544 (S$720) of revenue from the operating licences,” news portal Malay Mail reported Perlis exco member in charge of housing and local government Fakhrul Anwar Ismail as saying in June 2023.

Perlis is the fourth state under Islamist Parti Islam SeMalaysia’s (PAS) administration to stop issuing licences for gaming outlets after Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah.

Kedah has shut down all its 45 gaming outlets since January 2023 while Kelantan and Terengganu have imposed the ban since 1990 and 2020 respectively.

On the last day of its operation, punters made a beeline to the Da Ma Cai outlet, even though they have to travel to its branch in Penang – located 190km to the south – to collect their winnings.

An employee told Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily on March 6 that they had been seeing more people than usual.

“We’ve been open since 8am and the crowd hasn’t stopped (coming). Many people know it’s the last day,” the employee, who gave her name as Alyssa, said.

With the ban, illegal gaming is expected to thrive with underground betting activities picking up, English-language daily The Star reported in July 2023.