Jamaica's casino gaming commission to be established

The bill states that the commission will have regulatory functions over the conduct of casino gaming, including the power to grant gaming licenses to persons to conduct casino gaming within an approved, integrated resort development.

The commission will also be able to grant personal licenses to specific individuals identified as occupying management positions, or carrying out operational functions in a casino, which warrant obtaining assurance that they meet certain criteria of fitness and propriety of character.

To facilitate the commission's functions, Shaw has also tabled a bill amending the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act, under which the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission, a statutory body established in 1975, currently regulates and controls the operations of betting and gaming and the conduct of lotteries in Jamaica.

The bill confirms the Government's intention to implement legislation to provide a regulatory framework for the business of casino-gaming. It has been proposed that the casino-gaming component should be no more than 20 % of the total investment, in any approved, integrated resort development.

The legislation would provide for penalties ranging from us$ 50,000 for failing to deliver a license that has lapsed or ceases to be effective to us$ 50 million for removing seals, or devices of like nature, from the gaming machines.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding told a town-hall meeting in Montego Bay, St James, on July 25 that the tabling of the bill had been delayed to ensure that "every sentence was right, every T was crossed and every I dotted".

Golding warned possible investors that the licenses would not be cheap. "Before you can get a license, you have to give us a bankable, guaranteed commitment that you are going to build new hotels, with not less than 2,000 rooms and an investment of not less than us$ 1.5 billion," he said.

"We want hotel rooms, we want employment, we want to be sure that when you get a license you are going to use that license to bring in thousands more visitors to Jamaica. That is how we are going to continue growing the tourism sector," he added.

The Government has already given an undertaking to two companies, indicating its willingness to consider formal applications for casino licenses - one for Montego Bay and one for Trelawny.