Thursday September 29, 2005
Bill on casinos ready next year
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The Home Affairs Ministry and other government agencies are working on the Casino Control Bill.
The ministry said the Bill aims to “empower the casino regulator and the police” to do their job of overseeing the gaming resorts slated for 2009.
Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament earlier this year that the regulator's job would include screening casino vendors and keeping tabs on their bookkeeping and transaction records.
Observers interviewed on Tuesday added that the Bill might also cover items such as the placement of ATM machines in gaming venues, credit extensions, advertising parameters, and the controversial ban of self and family members from such places. The Government has studied regulatory models in Britain, Australia and the United States.
Gaming analyst Jonathan Galaviz of Globalysis said the final Bill here was likely to be partly modelled on the gaming laws of the US state of Nevada.
The state, which regulates the Las Vegas casinos, “provides what is globally recognised as the premium model of regulation in the casino-gaming industry,” he said.
Nevada uses a two-tier model, comprising a Gaming Commission and a Gaming Control Board.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Tourism Board said the second delay to phase two of the bidding process was to make time to study concerns raised by the bidders. These included issues brought up to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on his trip to Las Vegas two months ago.
STB chief executive Lim Neo Chian said: “Some of the issues are quite complex. There are governmental procedures that have to be followed, which is why we are taking a longer time.” – The Straits Times/ANN
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