Malaysian Players Fined for Mega888 and 918Kiss on Their Phones

Three people in Kuching were fined by magistrates in cases reported in September 2026, for playing casino apps on their phones in public, and in two of them an expert report found that the phone itself was being used for gambling. The cases, reported by the Sarawak Tribune and The Rakyat Post, show Malaysia’s 1953 gambling law being used against individual players, not only the agents and operators who run the games.

The three cases

All three were prosecuted under section 7(2) of the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953, which covers gaming in a public place. All three were in the Kuching magistrates’ courts, and the reports name no lawyer for any of them.

The 918Kiss case. A 55-year-old man was fined RM2,700, with three months in prison if he did not pay, according to the Sarawak Tribune report of 7 September 2026. Police raiding a café near Jalan Stutong on the morning of 30 May said they saw him behaving suspiciously on the five-foot way outside. When officers approached, his phone was showing a slot called Fairy Garden Plus on 918Kiss, next to a printed slip with his login details. A gambling expert later examined the items and confirmed they contained computer-based gambling elements as defined in section 2 of the Act. He pleaded guilty.

The first Mega888 case. A 36-year-old man arrested at a café near Pasar Tabuan Jaya on 12 September was fined RM2,500 on 22 September, with two months in prison in default, for playing a Mega888 slot, according to The Rakyat Post.

The second Mega888 case. A 54-year-old man was fined RM2,000, with two months in default, on 25 September. Police had watched a food court near Jalan Gold Jade for about 15 minutes during an operation called Ops Dadu before detaining him at 5.05pm on 20 September. They seized his phone, RM210 in cash and a slip of paper with a user ID and password. An expert report confirmed the phone was being used as a gambling device. He had no criminal record.

Why the expert report matters

The maximum penalty under section 7(2) is a fine of RM5,000, six months in prison, or both. The fines handed down so far are well under that ceiling. The more significant detail is the expert report.

The Rakyat Post reports that in a separate Kuching case, investigators backed by an expert report confirmed that a phone counted as a “gaming machine” under the Act. That matters because section 4B(a), a different offence in the same Act, applies where a gaming machine is used, and it carries a minimum fine of RM10,000 per machine and up to five years in prison. None of the reports we found names an ordinary player charged under section 4B(a), and we are not suggesting one has been. But once courts accept that a phone is a gaming machine, the heavier charge is legally available.

Public places, and what that does not mean

Every one of these cases involved someone playing in public, in view of police running an operation. That is why section 7(2) was used. It does not mean that playing at home is lawful. Section 6(1) of the same Act covers gaming in private, and the Court of Appeal confirmed in 2023 that the Act reaches online gambling, not just physical gaming houses. Private play is harder for police to detect, which is the main reason fewer cases are reported, but the law still applies.

For Muslim players there is a separate and absolute prohibition under each state’s Syariah criminal enactments, enforced by state religious authorities independently of the civil courts. We set out the full legal position, including the Syariah layer, in our online casino Malaysia guide, which we have updated this week to reflect these cases.

A new law is being drafted

The Act these players were charged under was written in 1953 for physical gaming houses. In February 2026 Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof said the government was drafting a bill on illegal gambling, including online gambling, and hoped to table it in the next session of Parliament, AGB reported. He said it had no name yet and that the government was still deciding between a standalone act and amendments to existing laws, including the Common Gaming Houses Act and cybercrime legislation. A former Sarawak police commissioner has separately called the 1953 Act no longer adequate for online gambling. As of 29 October 2026 we have not found a report that the bill has been tabled.

What this means for players

Mega888 and 918Kiss are the two names in these cases, and both are app platforms run through local agents, with no licence from any regulator we could find. Our Mega888 review and 918Kiss review cover how that agent model works and why a player has no regulator to turn to if a payout goes wrong. These court cases add a second risk on top of that one: the player can be prosecuted.

We have dropped the “grey market” label we used to apply to Malaysia across this site. These cases show the law is being used against players, so the label no longer fits. Nothing in this article is a recommendation to play. If gambling has stopped being something you can control, the free services listed on our responsible gambling page can help.

We will update this piece when the draft bill is published or tabled, or if any player is reported charged under section 4B(a).