There is already a date and time set for the signing of the final opinion of the Second Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) on the new Gaming Law. June 10 was the date chosen for the committee members to gather one last time to sign the final opinion attached to the final version of the bill, sending it back to the plenary for the final approval.
The information came from the president of the committee, lawmaker Chan Chak Mo, yesterday during a press briefing following a committee meeting.
According to Chan, the bill is now undergoing the final stages of perfecting the writing of some of its articles and lines. Soon the final version of the bill will arrive at the committee table for a final reading and issuing of opinion.
“At this moment the government will work on a new version of the bill, then we will organize a meeting with the government to review and discuss any final details. The final version will be attached to the opinion from the committee that will be signed on June 10 to then be raised to the plenary for the final voting,” Chan explained, noting that the government at this point will only be perfecting some writing.
“We believe that there will be no big changes anymore. The new version will only present minor changes on technical matters, not on policy,” he remarked.
In a meeting that served to revise minor details amended by the government on the second version of the bill, presented to the committee late last week, the president said that there are no significant changes but, instead, several clarifications of the intention of the government in the legal production.
One of the clarifications made yesterday had to do with the addition of a line to Article 48-J regarding the competencies of the concessionaires.
According to Chan, a new line was added to clarify that, when imposing of a sanction on a concessionaire that involves a temporary or a permanent ceasing of operations, the concessionaires must pay full compensation to the workers (who are to be dismissed), as in the termination of contract without a just cause.
Chan explained that this idea is not new, but following the insistence of some lawmakers from the labor sector, the government decided it was best to clearly state what the procedure will be to secure this right for workers.
Another of the changes has to do with the Articles 49 and 50, which clarified that new companies wishing to take part in the gaming license tender do not need to establish a completely new company, but can just promote a change to their statutes in respect of the legal purpose to include the operation of gaming facilities such as casinos or other gaming venues.
Following a similar method, companies that are currently gaming concessionaires, in case they lose their license, do not need to dissolve the company, but may just remove the gaming operations from their by-laws, and will be able to continue to operate in other business sectors and activities.
