TV3 plans to stop all SMS contests

KUALA LUMPUR - A leading private television station, TV3, has decided to stop all its popular SMS contests following a religious ruling that Islam forbids such activities and thus Muslims are banned from taking part in them. TV3 said it would adhere to the National Fatwa Council's decree and cease all SMS contests. The other stations said they were still studying the matter. A spokesman for TV3 said the station would seek further advice from the National Fatwa Council and the Finance Ministry on the guidelines, and a definition of SMS contests that had elements of gambling forbidden in Islam. TV3 would, however, continue with polling or voting via SMS on its news programme, Buletin Utama, as these were not thought to fall under the scope of the fatwa, the spokesman said. The National Fatwa Council issued a decree this week that SMS-based contests violated the Islamic prohibition on gambling. Satellite TV operator Astro said the decree would not affect the station as it only offered 'skill-based' SMS competitions and not those based on chance. Astro's head of programming, Mr Zainir Aminullah, said: 'From what I understand, the decree is only for contests that rely solely on chance. All of our contests require an element of skill.' He said Astro had no plans to cancel any contests as it had followed guidelines issued by the Finance Ministry in April on activities classified as gambling or lotteries. The guidelines define gambling as 'the playing of any game of chance and skill for money or money's worth'. A lottery is defined as 'any game, method or device whereby money or money's worth is distributed or allotted in any manner to be determined by chance or not'. Channel 9 Media Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Abdul Aziz Hamdan said he supported the decree as SMS contests were a waste of money. 'The contests benefit only the telecommunications companies. Therefore, we will abide by the decree,' he said. Another private television station, ntv7, said it had not run contests that contravened the teachings of Islam. Chief executive officer Sazali Ramly said ntv7's existing programmes, such as Who Will Win, where viewers use SMS to vote for their favourite contestants, was not a game of chance and therefore did not amount to gambling. Mr Malik Samsudeen, a businessman whose company provides SMS-based contests, said the decree would hit him and 400 other companies. 'I have invested RM3 million (S$1.3 million) and just ordered RM650,000 worth of new computer equipment, and today I received calls from my customers who want to put on hold all their SMS contest projects with us,' lamented Mr Malik. Mr Malik noted that revenue from SMS services amounted to over RM1.2 billion last year, half of it coming from SMS-based contests. -- New Straits Times