Singapore parliament passes new gambling and casino bills

March 14, 2022 Singapore Crime & Legal

The Singapore parliament has passed two key bills aimed at overhauling gambling regulation and laws governing everything from social gambling to proxy betting.

The Gambling Control Bill will see both proxy betting and underage gambling criminalized under Singapore law, while providing an exemption for “social gambling” among friends and family. It will also establish a licensing regime for products such as fruit machines, Singapore Pools’ products and gambling at private establishments, and introduce a class licensing regime for lower-risk gambling practices whereby products do not need to be individually licensed.

On the issue of proxy betting the Ministry of Home Affairs recently stated that, “This should be prohibited as the decision maker (the person located outside of the casino and ordering which bets are to be placed) would have bypassed the entry checks put in place to screen out individuals such as those under entry bans.”

Minister of State for Home Affairs, Desmond Tan, explained during Friday’s final deliberations that it would be up to casino operators to ensure proxy betting was not taking place on its gaming floors.

“Casinos will be liable to regulatory action, like financial penalties, if they fail to enforce this,” he said, according to Channel News Asia.

Also passed on Friday was the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Singapore (GRA) Bill, which will reconstitute the Casino Regulatory Authority to establish the GRA as the single regulator for all forms of gambling. The GRA Bill will consolidate gambling regulatory expertise, which currently resides in different segments of government agencies, within a single agency.