Singapore Tightens Casino Suitability Rules And Widens Patron Data Sharing
Wider Grounds For Suitability Reviews
Singapore has widened the criteria that its Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) can use to assess whether a casino operator remains fit to hold its licence, under new amendments to the Casino Control Act that took effect this month.
The updated law lets the GRA examine whether an operator conducts its business "in a manner which is unethical or which will bring discredit to casino gambling in Singapore".
Regulators can also weigh whether a "systemic deficiency or failure" has occurred in an operator's internal controls or corporate governance, giving the GRA fresh grounds for disciplinary action if either issue affects a licence holder's suitability.
Casinos Must Now Share Patron Data
Alongside the suitability changes, Singapore's two licensed casino operators are now required to share information about patrons with one another to help tackle money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.
Singapore's home affairs and social and family ministries said the change would let operators "take swifter action when a patron is found to pose a higher risk of money laundering, terrorism financing or proliferation financing," removing a step that previously slowed enforcement.
The move builds on a series of amendments to Singapore's two-decade-old casino law, which regulates the city-state's two integrated resort casinos, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, and follows broader efforts by Singapore to align its anti-money laundering safeguards with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.
