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Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state’s two local government bodies, the Penang Island City Council and Seberang Perai Municipal Council, had stopped accepting new licences for the gaming facilities.
The target date for enforcing the ban is the end of next year.
“This is the decision of the state executive council,” Lim said.
The main concern is with youths spending money and time on these games which prove highly addictive.
The move is an extension of last month’s prohibition on issuance of licences for the gaming facilities in all premises, except for malls, supermarkets and hotels.
State executive councillor for local government Chow Kon Yeow had announced last month that these machines would still be allowed in these places.
However, the executive council has since then made the decision to ban the use of these machines in all premises.
Lim revealed this during a dialogue with youths organised by the office of Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim at the Cerok Tokun forest park in Seberang Perai near here.
Present at the event, which also featured a voter-registration exercise, was DAP’s parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.
With this latest move, businesses that are legally operating such machines will not have their annual licences renewed once they expire.
On another matter, Lim said Football Association of Penang president Zairil Khir Johari may need to hold a dialogue with unhappy fans on the abysmal performance of the Penang state football team in the Malaysia Super League.
He declined to comment further on the club’s poor performance, saying he was not a football expert.
The Penang team has suffered six consecutive losses in all games played since the opening of the season, a record since the league was founded in 2004.
Fans have vented their frustration on Zairil, who is Bukit Bendera MP and the FAP president since Feb 6. He was previously manager of the squad.
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