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US Treasury Office officials said Antigua’s regulatory system for its land-based gambling operations is antiquated and better legislation would be needed soon.
Yesterday, 25 representatives of the Office of National Drug & Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP), Inland Revenue, and casino inspectors received certification for completing a two-week course on updated land-based casino operations and regulation from a government perspective.
After completing the course, which dealt with issues like gaming law, the participants took a 50 page exam, which qualified them for certification.
Rick Hector of the US Treasury Office of Technical Assistance said his office worked principally in five disciplines: enforcement, tax, debt, budget, and banking. Their mission was to provide assistance to countries in those five areas, helping them to develop better enforcement systems.
“Your law is very old and antiquated and does not have much regulatory authority in it and so, we want to help draft some better legislation and help train the parties that will be the regulators of the casino industry under the law,” he stated.
The law has been on the books since 1958 and Hector said it was abbreviated and does not give the government enough regulatory power and as a result, not enough revenue. Recognising that gaming has become a part of Antigua’s economic landscape, Hector said land-based casino industry was not being given the attention it needed and it can play a greater role if regulated properly. “It can be developed to a much greater degree for the operators, for the customers, and for the benefit of the country.”
Hector added that the US likes casino industries. He said it can become a large factor for employment, taxation, tourism, and even act as controls for anti-money laundering, a particular concern of the US.
Hector concluded legislation, though, was only one part of the puzzle and programmes on staffing, internal control standards and other areas need to be addressed. He said a complete restructuring needed to be done and it would take at least two to three years to be implemented.
Director of Gaming in the Antigua & Barbuda Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC), Division of Gaming Kaye McDonald concurred with Hector’s assessment and said the government has now chosen to bring the standard of the land-based casino industry up to that of the Internet gaming industry.
The regulation of land-based gaming will come under FSRC’s aegis, on order by the minister of finance, to create “one regulatory space”.
This first two-week course concluded phase one of the government restructuring. Phase two will be additional human resource training and phase three will principally deal with the legislation and technical abilities of the country.
A draft model of a new casino law was submitted by the US Treasury officials to the government, at the end of the course, and now it is being adapted to the local needs.
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