Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide this Honourable House with an update on the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission (“the Commission”) and in particular to inform members of a review of the Casino Gaming Act 2014 (“the Act”) that was recently completed by the Commission.
In May of last year, I annouced that I had completed the remaining two(2) appointments of members to the Commission. Over the course of the past seven (7) months the Commission members have been steadily acclimatizing themselves with the full scope of their duties and responsibilities as Commission members, in addition to undertaking and completing the various tasks associated with the recruitment of key Commission personnel and the actual setup of the Commission offices. Most members will be aware of the appointment of Mr. Richard Schuetz as the Executive Director and his appointment commenced on 1st September, 2015 and I am pleased to report that Mr. Schuetz has hit the ground running and is making significant progress with the onboarding of required personnel to support the operation of the Commission.
Mr. Speaker, the Act was established to meet the challenge of enhancing investment and employment in Bermuda through the introduction of up to three (3) Integrated Resort Casinos. In order to ensure the orderly introduction and operation of these facilities, the Commission is empowered to satisfy the following five goals in the execution of its duties:
- The owners, vendors, managers, employees, and sources of finance should be free from any inappropriate past or present associations and behaviors, and uphold high ethical standards;
- The casinos should possess sound operational and financial controls;
- The games offered should be fair, honest, and operate with a high level of security and integrity;
- All fees, taxes, and related payments, should be appropriately accounted for and paid; and
- Controls should be in place to protect the vulnerable.
Mr. Speaker, with the creation of the Act a decision was made to use Singapore as the primary exemplary model for our gaming industry and much of what we find in the Act has been adapted from the Singaporean model. One of the initial tasks for the Commission was to thoroughly review the Act within the context of determining what changes and amendments could and should be made to the Act to ensure the legislative framework is best suited and most appropriate for the Bermuda model. In comparison to Singapore important facts to consider are:
- The Singaporean regulatory entity employs almost 200 people, spends $30 million annually, and receives substantial assistance from the Singaporean Police Force.
- Their regulatory process involved hundreds of regulators, dozens of consultants, and expenditure of over $200 million during the development process which took almost 7 years.
- The regulatory agency was spending approximately $10 million two years before the opening of the first casino.
Mr. Speaker, Singapore is a much larger jurisdiction than Bermuda with its gaming operations managing millions of patrons and generating approximately $6 billion in casino revenues. As stated above, one of the first tasks of the Executive Director and the Commission was to analyze our existing legislation to ensure that it creates the appropriate environment in which casinos can be profitable whilst maintaining the proper regulatory protections for our jurisdiction.
Therefore, Mr. Speaker, it has been the approach of the Commission to suggest a streamlining of the existing process so as to be faster, smarter, and fundamentally more economical in the introduction of casinos on the Island; while working to present a system that meets the test of offering a high degree of integrity and security. In order to make this a reality, the Commission has provided recommendations to amend certain aspects of the Act.
Mr. Speaker, in order to achieve the public policy goals of the Act in ways that are smart, economical, and efficient, the suggested positioning for the Bermuda Regulatory Model is as follows:
- To offer an approach that is appropriate to the social, cultural, and economic realities of Bermuda.
- To offer a human resource policy of being staffed by a limited number of high performance individuals comprising the regulatory leadership team.
- To work in a collaborative fashion with other global regulatory entities to achieve efficiencies and avoid duplicative actions.
- To be dependent on third-parties for –
- Forensic accounting for suitability of applicants; o Criminal & civil suitability investigations;
- Compliance auditing assistance; and
- Technological standards and testing.
- To be dependent on a mandated Operator Compliance Committee whereby –
- The operator performs many tasks traditionally performed by the regulatory entity, with the Commission staff performing audits to ensure compliance where the Operator Compliance Committee is required to report all compliance failures to the Commission staff.
- To be less reliant on prescriptive regulations by:
- Moving to risk-based methodologies in regulatory construction. o Reliant on stated goals and standards.
- Enhancing dependence on user defined internal controls.
- To utilize an evidence-based best practices approach in developing a program to provide protections to the vulnerable, working in concert with existing treatment providers.
Mr. Speaker, as previously stated the two primary public policy goals of the Act are to enhance investment and employment in Bermuda. The Commission has worked hard to complete the review of the Act and in short, we believe that they have made recommendations for amendments to the Act which will result in the Act being smarter and more efficient, without sacrificing system integrity. It is the Ministry’s intent to proceed with the recommended amendments to the Act and we are taking the appropriate steps to obtain the required approvals to table these amendments in this Honourable House as expeditiously as possible.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased with the progress that we have made thus far and I will continue to keep this Honourable House updated as we continue with the implementation of the local gaming industry.
Thank you Mr. Speaker