The Provisional Collection of Taxes Order 2017 recently was passed in Trinidad and Tobago. Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the temporary measures will be imposed while lawmakers consider the Gaming and Betting Control Bill 2017. That legislation would double gambling taxes and regulate the nation’s gambling industry in order to prevent money laundering and foreign exchange outflows. According to the Ministry of Finance, more than 5,000 bars around the nation offer gambling machines and amusement games.
Imbert told opposition MPs, “Casino gambling is the number-one source of leakage of foreign exchange in the country and you all need to understand that. It is putting pressure on our foreign exchange system and pressure on our exchange rate. You have people who have no means, man of straw walking to a cambio with $30,000 to change it into U.S. to send to China and whatever other country and this is happening every day. They deal in cash and they send the little workers, the same ones who came around the Parliament, the same ones who misbehave in here. The same ones who came shouting outside my house, to send those little workers with $30 and $50,000 to change into U.S. dollars and to export it to Indonesia and China and Turkey.”
Imbert noted the Provisional Collection of Taxes Order could become permanent if the opposition does not support it. He said the opposition “can be as cantankerous and obstructive as they need to be. They can be as flippant as they need to be. They can be as inaccurate and just plain wrong in what they say as they wish to be but this is an interim measure which will become permanent if the members opposite do not support it,” he said.
Imbert said the provisional measure would create a self-exclusion system allowing gamblers to ban themselves from casinos. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh noted a report by the National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Programme indicated since the beginning of the year 49 people with gambling addiction or problems have sought help and treatment from a self-help group. He noted for every individual who came forward there probably were 100 who have not sought treatment.
Meanwhile, the Union of Members Clubs and Lottery Workers called the actions government’s actions a “treachery” and accused officials of a lack of transparency and honesty. Union members said the tax increase on casino equipment would not affect casino owners, who would reduce the number of gambling machines in their venues to save on taxes—but that would lead to employee layoffs.
