Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will officially establish the state’s new gambling regulator, the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), by mid-2022.
According to Inside Asian Gaming, a bill introduced before parliament last week is central to the MHA’s efforts to consolidate four current regulatory bodies into a single agency. Those four include the Casino Regulatory Authority, which regulates Singapore’s two casinos, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa; the Gambling Regulatory Unit, which regulates iGaming and fruit machines; the Singapore Totalisator Board, which oversees gambling services operated by Singapore Pools; and the Singapore Police Force.
“To stay ahead of technological and global trends, respond more adequately to emerging gambling products and take a more holistic and coherent approach to gambling policies and issues, we should rationalize and consolidate,” the MHA said on February 14.
“The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Singapore Bill will establish the GRA as the single regulator for all forms of gambling. We aim to establish the GRA in mid-2022.”
The Gambling Control Bill, also presented to parliament last week, would updates gambling laws and regulation in order to keep pace with the “evolving gambling landscape.” The bill covers unlawful gambling offenses and the regulation of non-casino gaming. Once it becomes law, four current laws will be repealed, reported IAG: the Betting Act, the Common Gaming Houses Act, the Private Lotteries Act and the Remote Gambling Act.
The Gambling Control Bill will redefine gambling to cover both existing and emerging betting products. It will also provide an exemption for “social gambling” among friends and family; establish a licensing regime for products such as fruit machines, Singapore Pools’ products and gambling at private establishments; and introduce a class licensing regime for lower-risk gambling practices, which do not need to be individually licensed. In addition, it will criminalize both proxy betting and underage gambling.
