Malaysia Sports Betting License Issued to Vincent Tan

The football betting licenses were issued to Berjaya Group boss, Vincent Tan, Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd company. The sports betting licenses was granted in  the year of 1987 and stopped in 1990, and further reissued in 2003 but were taken back again after a year. This licenses included with several conditions. Ascot Sports can only operate in only 200 of the 680 Sport Toto outlets in non-Muslim areas in major towns and online betting are banned. But telephone betting may provided to those who registered. these outlets would also be required to put up notices that only adult non-Muslims would be allowed to place bets. As for now, the gainers from sports or football betting are the illegal bookies. The unofficial estimates that Malaysians place RM20bil in bets a year with local illegal and offshore bookmakers.

European Union and International Monetary Fund pledged US$1 trillion defend Euro

The European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pledged roughly US$1 trillion on Monday to defend the falling euro, to prevent the common currency from devalued and collapse.

Most Central banks around the world joined the coordinated effort to prevent Europe's debt crisis from derailing the global economic recovery.

The initiative was under the three-year plan, the European Commission (EU's governing body) will make Euros 60 billion ($75 billion) available while countries from the 16-nation eurozone would promise backing for Euros 440 billion ($570 billion).

Furthermore, the IMF would contribute an additional sum of at least half of the EU's total contribution, or Euros 250 billion.

EU Commissioner Olli Rehn says they will defend the Euro whatever it takes and necessary to be after meeting with those EU's Ministers.

Sports Bettings Could Granted License

The sports betting or gambling may be legalise in Malaysia as the government may regulate and legalise it. This was due to the near term of FIFA World Cup 2010. However, the Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Awang Adek did not says when a decision would be made.  The Government was also aware that so hundred millions and billions of money was involved and the Government can gain from it and use the revenue to develop sports. Dr Awang Adek said it would benefit everybody if the tax revenue was used for sports development. Since the illegal bookies will still continue their activities. So, rather  leave them to do it unregulated on their own, the Government should try to regulate it in a manner in which it is controlled. In conclusion, I think there will be a outcome soon after the further discussion by the Government since the football match are starting soon.

Dow Jones Slump as Eurozone: Greece Debt Crisis Worsen

Dow Jones gone into deep shit as affected by Greece Debts Crisis. Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down over 200 points on Tuesday as concerns about a eurozone debt crisis prompted heavy losses in the financial sector. The Dow fell 213.04 points or 1.9% to closed below the level of 11,000 and ended the day at 10,991.99, suffering its WORST DECLINE since Feb.4, 2010. The Nasdaq composite drop 2.04% and the Standard & Poor 500 index skidded 2.34%.

The Eurozone countries that facing debts problem are Greece, Spain and Portugal. Spain, which is trying to emerge from a steep recession following a housing bubble, is running a 11.2% budget deficit. That compares to Portugal's 9.4% deficit and Greece's 13.6% deficit.

Europe's act in respond had led investors selling off Greek debt, and causing Greece more expensive to borrow money, and negative images. And the worry now is that this process will be repeated in Portugal.

Furthermore, the €45 billion aid package for Greece from the EU and the International Monetary Fund could be delayed by political in-fighting in Germany, which Germany is to provide about €8.4 billion of the EU's €30 billion in rescue loans. As the opposition in Germany is criticizing the rescue plan and opposing Chancellor Angela Merkel's commitment to come to Greece's rescue. This was mainly due to the Propoganda by the political party because Germany was in the midst of a campaign for a crucial regional election set for May 9 that could influence the balance of power in Germany's national parliament.

All this problems had pro-long and pissed-off investors to sell and causing the market to panic and facing heavy selling pressure.

In this case, the stocks that pull Dow Jones down are mainly financial stocks such as Citigroup, Bank of America and others. Chances are on Citi, buy when it deeps. Hehe.

  

Barisan Nasional Won Hulu Selangor

Barisan Nasional (BN) won the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seats is already beyond expectation. Barisan Nasional won by a 1,725-vote majority. Barisan Nasional Candidate from Malaya Indian Congress (MIC) P. Kamalanathan garnered 24,997 votes to defeat Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) (Pakatan Rakyat) Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who got 23,272 votes. There were 731 spoilt votes, of the total of 48,935 votes cast. Voter turnout was 75.87%. The winning of BN are mainly contributed by heavy goodies from Barisan Nasional, such as promises to pay Felda settlers and others. And PKR loses are mainly Pakatan Rakyat non-performing, since 2 years of the General Election, Pakatan had taken control the Selangor state for 2 years, but it seems that promises were not fulfilled and Pakatan Rakyat are not doing enough for the Rakyat (people). Furthermore, the Indian in Hulu Selangor are backing MIC (BN) and the Malay are also backing UMNO (BN), thus some vote are deliver back to Barisan Nasional. Hence, this might be a signal or indication to Pakatan Rakyat that the people's are not happy with their performance.

Malaysia Estimated GDP Growth by 8% in 2010

Fuyohhh..Backed by many external and internal factors, Malaysia may able to achieve 8% GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth this year as forecasted by Am Research Sdn Bhd. If this forecast come reals then it will the strongest since 1996. Other institution that do forecasted Malaysia 2010 GDP are Malaysia Central Bank: Bank Negara forecast of 4.5 to 5.5% GDP growth, while World Bank estimate at 5.7% GDP growth. The Prime Minister Najib Razak itself do estimated a GDP growth of not less than 6%.

 Factors that lead to the higher forecast:

1. The increase in domestic demand of products.
2. Increase in external demand from neighbouring countries and stronger commodity prices.
3. Private sector spending by households increased as well.
4.  Liberalisation of economics introduced by PM Datuk Najib Razak, eg. lift direct foreign investment in financial services and in other tertiary sectors.
5. New initiative, the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) to tackle waste and corruption in the public sector and speed up the implementation of new projects.
6. New Economic Model for fairer wealth distribution to replace the controversial New Economic Policy.
7. Employment and income level rising.
8. Police forces reform to curb high crime rates to with heavier police presences.
9. Ringgit rises at RM3.10 per USD 1.
10. Consumer confidences increase.
11. Exports and imports are to post double-digit growths of 15% and 16% this year for a higher current account surplus of RM125bil or 20% of the GDP.

European Airport Closures : SIA loss millions per day

Most European airports were shut down due to the huge amounts of ash and smoke emanating from volcano in Iceland’s . The ash, which is moving slowly toward mainland Europe, poses a threat to aviation safety. This eruption started on April 14, and had caused the world’s largest aviation disruption since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States Thousands of flights across portions of Europe were canceled. This eruption had pro-long until today. SIA (Singapore Airline Ltd) reported that it has been losing at least S$4 million per day since Thursday as a result of airport closures in Europe because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. As SIA needs to cover accommodation costs for stranded passengers and exclude cancelled flights, if cancelled flight were included, it could be even higher. SIA operates 25 flights to and from Europe daily with more than 20 being cancelled since last April 15.SIA carrier makes around 25% of its revenue from flights to Europe. It flies the Airbus A380 super jumbo to hubs like London, Zurich and Paris, which were all affected by the volcanic ash cloud.