The Bermuda Senate has approved a bill that sets fees and tax rates for the territory’s new casino gaming industry. Despite passage, Senator Michael Fahy, the minister responsible for tourism, said the Casino Gaming (General Reserve and Casino Taxes) Regulations 2017 would be withdrawn, amended and returned to the House of Assembly before debate on it could begin. He cited a need to fix a “minor error” in the proposed legislation.
Fahy said that the fee structure and 10 percent tax rate established in the regulations were in accord with the goals of the 2014 Casino Gaming Act. The fee schedule sets a casino license application charge at $600,000 and the provisional license issue charge of $1.4 million. A casino license issue fee is set at $1 million, while an annual casino license fee is $1 million, “less any applicable discount.”
Meanwhile, a prospective casino operator reportedly is ready to walk away from Bermuda over the island’s high gaming fees. Independent MP Shawn Crockwell, who had argued against the high fees in Parliament, told The Royal Gazette that stakeholders are finding the cost of doing business in Bermuda to be too high.
“I was contacted by numerous individuals who did not know of the fees until they read about it in the Royal Gazette,” Crockwell said of the Casino Gaming (General Reserve and Casino Taxes) Regulations 2016, and the Casino Gaming (Casino Fees) Regulations 2016—both of which passed narrowly. “I was quite surprised to see the fee set at around $3 million. I spoke to about three very prominent individuals who were surprised, astounded, at the high levels…
“We wanted to have amenity casinos to support hotels by providing entertainment for guests and to create a certain revenue stream, but it was not supposed to be for the government’s money-making. The initial approach was that we wanted to help hotels, particularly new developments. Now we are going down a road of seeing Bermuda as a gaming jurisdiction, and that’s never going to happen.”
