Legality of casinos accepting deposits in doubt
President of the Second Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly, Chan Chak Mo
The lawmakers of the Second Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) have expressed doubts about the legality of the gaming concessionaires accepting deposits from players in a mixture of cash and gaming chips, the president of the committee, lawmaker Chan Chak Mo said yesterday in the press briefing after the committee meeting.
At issue is the discussion of the bill aiming to enact new rules for the activities of the gaming promoters, also known as junkets, which is discussed separately from the new gaming law.
The question of the legality of deposits at casinos was raised as a consequence of this new bill, which establishes that the junkets are banned from accepting any deposits from gamblers in both cash and gaming chips.
The issue was introduced into the debate during the discussion of the provision of Article 39 which regulates the “Illicit deposit acceptance.”
This article states that the gaming promoters, management companies, employees, or any other person who, on behalf of the game promoter, management company, or employees’ requests, raises, or accepts, directly or through third parties, cash deposits, gaming chips or other funds provided by others through any means, is liable for a penalty that can range from two to five years imprisonment.
The provision raises questions for the lawmakers as to what these “third parties” are, and whether or not they include the gaming concessionaires.
On this point, Chan said that the Committee has already sought advice from AL’s Legal Advisory to clarify whether the gaming concessionaires can receive deposits from gamblers as well as from the government on whether they are included as “third parties”.
“We want the government to clarify whether it is really ‘any person’ who is barred from receiving deposits as well as the reference made to ‘third parties’. As the gaming concessionaires have not been listed this might indicate that they can accept deposits […] there is this doubt that we are calling on our legal advisors to clarify,” he said, adding, “We know they [gaming concessionaries] can issue loans but whether they can receive deposits is not clear.”
Another issue that drew questions from the lawmakers has to do with the penalties to be enforced on the junkets not-complying with the rules established by this new law. This concerns the maximum ceiling for the earning of the promoters, as well as the non-reporting of contract alterations between junkets and concessionaires as well as swapping of concessionaires, the Committee president said.
He noted that the matter was prompted by the AL’s Legal Advisors, who “found that the bill had some unreasonable aspects.”
“The problem is that if they fail to comply there is a fine targeting the junkets ranging from 100,000 patacas to 500,000 patacas, but it seems like the rules only punish one side of the contract,” Chan said, adding, “The penalties are always aimed at the [gaming] promoters but never on the concessionaires’ side. Concessionaires also have responsibilities because in this case scenario both sides are violating the law. So, we need to ask the government to clarify this matter.”
During yesterday’s meeting, lawmakers analyzed the bill as far as Article 59, Chan said, noting that since there are only a few further articles to discuss (the law has a total of 65 Articles), the first round of analysis will be completed this Friday when the Committee will meet again to discuss the same topic.
