The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE highly anticipated new Gaming Bill 2014 will leave the door open for the government to establish a national lottery at the discretion of the minister, while outlining yearly rates of taxation on webshops among other stringent industry regulations.

According to the Gaming House Operator Regulations 2014, the holder of a gaming house licence will be taxed according to whichever is greater –  either 11 per cent of taxable revenue or 25 per cent of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation are deducted. Webshop operators will also have to pay an annual licence fee of $250,000.  

Failure to comply with taxes, the regulations said, would be subject to harsh penalties. The licence holder would be required to pay 10 per cent of the tax owed for each week the tax remains unpaid. This would come into effect only if the penalty does not exceed twice the tax amount or if it is determined that the failure to pay was not with a view to evade the law.

The Gaming Bill also upholds the discriminatory provisions that prevent Bahamians from legally gambling in hotel casinos.

The new, in-depth details came yesterday following the Christie administration’s tabling of several pieces of legislation in the House of Assembly, including the Financial Transactions Reporting Bill and Regulations, Gaming House Operator Regulations, the Gaming Bill and regulations along with the Proceeds of Crime Bill.

While the government has several times stated that it will only grant a limited number of licences for webshop operations, the regulations outline a more stringent application process that can only be entered into if a prospective applicant receives an invitation from the Gaming Board of the Bahamas and will take the form of a comprehensive Request for Proposal (RFP) document.

The Gaming Board will, before making the RFP public, gazette its intention to issue the types of licence to which the RFP applies and the purchase price.

Once a webshop owner is successfully granted permission to operate, the bill sets out a list of initial licence and application fees. For a new licence, an operator would be subject to pay $5,000 for a house operator licence, $2,000 in gaming house premises licence fees, $1,000 for the gaming house agent licence, $250 for a key employee licence and $150 per gaming employee.

In the years that follow, the operator licence will cost webshops $250,000, while the premises and agent licences will remain the same. Key employee licencing and gaming employee licencing will see a reduction to $120 and $80 respectively.

The bill also specifies that the minister responsible for gaming has the final say on several key decisions. These entail extending invitations or refusing them for application, notices of liability for payment of fees and deciding on the tax period.

There are also operational guidelines that require the webshop owner to submit to the government a document that should clearly outline a description of the controls, administration and accounting procedures which will be followed once the gaming house is fully functional.

Further, requirements for webshop patrons and their protection are incorporated into the legislation. All customers must be registered under the name on their official government issued forms of identification along with a listing of their place of residence and age. Fictitious names will not be allowed.

The industry, the proposed law said, will be responsible for rehabilitation programmes for those who may become addicted to webshop gambling.