Singapore amends gaming controls to prepare for casino expansion
With the casinos and integrated resort projects inching their way towards completion, the Singapore government has assured Parliament that it will put in place social safeguards “more stringent than that in other jurisdictions” when the casinos here open for business.
The Casino Control (Amendment) Bill (“
the Bill”) which was passed on 15 September 2009 and which came into force on 15 October 2009, seeks to facilitate the collection of casino taxes and beef up social safeguards. In particular, with the introduction of a new section 165A on “Persons to be Excluded From Casino”, the process for excluding undischarged bankrupts, people on state welfare and individual volunteers from the casinos has been simplified. These people would be automatically excluded from entry into the casinos and there would be no need for a Committee of Assessors to decide on whether to exclude them.
It has been estimated that there are currently around 29,000 undischarged bankrupts and recipients of public assistance and special grants from the government. The objective of third- party exclusion is to protect persons who are already in severe financial hardship, and who cannot afford to gamble, from getting into further debt.
The Bill seeks to amend the Casino Control Act (Cap.33A) for the following main purposes:
- to clarify the computation of gross gaming revenue for different types of games;
- to provide for procedural matters in relation to the assessment of casino tax or revision of tax returns by the Comptroller of Income Tax (“the Comptroller”), objections and appeals to be made against the Comptroller’s assessment or decision and the recovery of casino tax;
- to provide power for the Comptroller to remit late payment penalty and for the Minister for Finance to remit casino tax;
- to penalize the making of an incorrect casino tax return and to provide for the offence to be compoundable;
- to provide for the automatic exclusion of persons who are on public assistance, who are undischarged bankrupts or who make a voluntary application for exclusion, from casinos without the need for a Committee of Assessors to make an exclusion order in respect of each such persons;
- to simplify the process of notifying the applicant for a family exclusion order, the Commissioner of Police, the Casino Regulatory Authority of Singapore (“the Authority”) and every casino operator of the persons excluded; and
- to provide for the sharing of information between officers of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and the officers of the Authority.