A casino-gaming commission is to be established, under the Casino Gaming Bill which has been tabled in the House of Representatives by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw.

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

The commission will also be able to grant personal licences 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.

Amendment bill

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 per cent of the total investment, in any approved, integrated resort development.

The legislation would provide for penalties ranging from $50,000 for failing to deliver a licence that has lapsed or ceases to be effective to $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".

Warning to investors

Golding warned possible investors that the licences would not be cheap.

"Before you can get a licence, 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 licence you are going to use that licence 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 licences - one for Montego Bay and one for Trelawny.