KJ Admits That a Part of National Sports Council’s Allocations Came from Gambling Agency Donations

Following the recent beer brand sponsoring a school charity event issue, people also called out a Pahang school-level ping pong tournament for being held in a hall with beer advertisements.

Since then, the Ministry of Education (KPM) has emphasised that schools are prohibited from accepting donations involving the proceeds from gambling, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and other similar industries.

“This (contributions from gambling, cigarettes, drugs and alcohol), can affect the development of students’ intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical potential,” they shared.

The National Sports Council accepted donations from a gambling company

Since then, former Health Minister and Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, has admitted that the National Sports Council (MSN)’s allocation includes donations from a gambling company.

He said this during an episode of his Keluar Sekejap podcast alongside politician, Shahril Hamdan, as he shared his confusion on whether alcohol brands are not allowed to donate to schools or if they are allowed to donate as long as their brand is not displayed publicly.

“If there’s no hype (for the brand), then why should the brand donate?” Shahril asked.

“Okay, good point. I’ll give you an example. Many do not know that a part of the allocations for the National Sports Council, where I used to be the Minister of Youth and Sports, comes from Sports Toto. And in Sports Toto’s financial statements, they’ve clarified it there but they just didn’t have a cheque ceremony,”

“I have never had a handing over ceremony, receiving the cheque from Sports Toto, which is a gambling company,” Khairy responded.

He added that MSN did accept the money as it would go to the health of the people and athletes through sporting activities.

You can check out his full conversation on this topic here (1:04:00): 

What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

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