The Nassau Guardian
Govt to decide today when to bring Gaming Bill
The government will decide today when the Gaming Bill will be tabled in Parliament, Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage said yesterday.
The bill was expected to be tabled tomorrow. However, Prime Minister Perry Christie recently indicated that the government needed more time.
When asked for an update yesterday, Nottage, who is the leader of government business in the House of Assembly, said the matter will be discussed in Cabinet before a decision is made.
“I fully expect it to come in a relatively short period of time,” he told reporters.
“Cabinet meets on Tuesday and there will be some discussions and the date will be determined.”
The Nassau Guardian obtained a copy of the amended bill.
The bill would prohibit web shop owners from allowing foreign visitors to gamble in their establishments and would also prevent foreigners from gambling from other jurisdictions through websites operated by web shops.
Casinos would have the exclusive right to foreign players, both locally and online, according to the amended bill.
Web shops would be permitted to legally engage in cash betting transactions only, on the numbers games only and with domestic players only, the bill says.
The new bill defines the “domestic player” who could legally gamble in web shops, but not casinos.
The “domestic player” refers to anyone who is ordinarily resident in The Bahamas; is the holder of a permanent residence certificate; is a work permit holder or the spouse of any of these people.
The newly-amended Gaming Bill now provides for several licenses for web shop operators: A gaming house operator license, a gaming premises license and a gaming house agent license.
The new bill also mandates web shop accounts be established by the license holder in the name of the domestic player on a “face-to-face basis”, which essentially blocks web shop owners from establishing online accounts for foreigners.
As the government moves ahead with the Gaming Bill, Nottage said the role of the police will change.
The police and the government have been heavily criticized following the 2013 gaming referendum for its failure to enforce the law as it relates to web shops.
“As much as we talk about web shops and their existence, when you quite understand the law of gaming, it is not clear what the position of web shops are,” he said.
“What the new legislation will do is set out definitely what the restrictions are and so forth. So I think that all of the confusion will be relieved totally.”
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