RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

As Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert an­nounced that the Gam­bling (Gam­ing and Bet­ting) Con­trol Act will be pro­claimed in Jan­u­ary to reg­u­late the gam­ing in­dus­try, Na­tion­al Award re­cip­i­ent and pres­i­dent of the Fa­thers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Rhon­dell Fee­les urged Gov­ern­ment to use pro­ceeds from this reg­u­la­tion to in­tro­duce fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy pro­grammes in com­mu­ni­ties.

Im­bert, de­liv­er­ing the 2024/2025 Bud­get in Par­lia­ment on Mon­day, said the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion is aimed at pre­vent­ing mon­ey laun­der­ing and tax eva­sion while pro­tect­ing the pub­lic from er­rant op­er­a­tors. He added that part of the funds col­lect­ed from li­cenc­ing op­er­a­tors would be used to re­ha­bil­i­tate peo­ple ad­dict­ed to gam­bling.

Fee­les ac­knowl­edged that gam­bling has been re­spon­si­ble for fam­i­ly break­downs and even sui­cides. While he sup­port­ed the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of the in­dus­try and the re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion of ad­dicts, he em­pha­sized the need for fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy pro­grammes in com­mu­ni­ties.

"I am not say­ing that I sup­port gam­bling so that we can tax it to use the mon­ey to re­ha­bil­i­tate peo­ple. How­ev­er, I un­der­stand that it is a part of our so­cial con­struct and our cul­ture in some re­gard. It is il­le­gal, and it is there. But I don't en­dorse gam­bling. If they are tax­ing the gam­bling and use it to re­ha­bil­i­tate, it is still good that they are treat­ing this prob­lem and the num­ber of lives that it has de­stroyed," Fee­les said.

He stressed that so­ci­ety lacks fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy pro­grammes in com­mu­ni­ties and So­cial De­vel­op­ment, in­sti­tu­tions that should be de­vel­op­ing the coun­try. Fee­les not­ed that fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy is cru­cial to break­ing cy­cles of pover­ty and de­pen­den­cy.

"We are sup­posed to have fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy in our com­mu­ni­ties to get peo­ple out of pover­ty and stop be­ing de­pen­dent on a job. I would love to see these funds used to sup­port fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy through the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment. In­ject those funds in­to pro­grammes about the val­ue of fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy, and then they will un­der­stand that wast­ing funds will put them in­to fi­nan­cial demise."

Fee­les point­ed out that fi­nan­cial is­sues are a ma­jor fac­tor in fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tion, whether due to ad­dic­tion, poor fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, or oth­er vices.

"Some­times it is not an ad­dic­tion, but it’s just poor fi­nan­cial man­age­ment," he said.

Dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion, Im­bert stat­ed that the com­mis­sion over­see­ing the Act has made sig­nif­i­cant progress in de­vel­op­ing a reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work, fol­low­ing pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions. The com­mis­sion is now re­fin­ing the feed­back re­ceived.

He said once the Act is pro­claimed, a tran­si­tion­al phase will be­gin where all gam­ing es­tab­lish­ment op­er­a­tors and own­ers of gam­ing ma­chines, un­der the Liquor Li­cences Act, must no­ti­fy the com­mis­sion of their ex­is­tence. Im­bert said that once this in­for­ma­tion is col­lect­ed, the com­mis­sion would ad­vise on the ap­plic­a­ble li­cences and op­er­a­tors would then pay the rel­e­vant fees. The col­lec­tion of these fees is ex­pect­ed to start in the sec­ond quar­ter of fis­cal 2025.

"These mea­sures, along­side staff train­ing, stake­hold­er en­gage­ment, and the es­tab­lish­ment of in­ter­nal gov­er­nance struc­tures, will en­hance the com­mis­sion's abil­i­ty to over­see and en­sure com­pli­ance in the gam­bling sec­tor through an ef­fec­tive li­cens­ing regime," Im­bert said.

He not­ed that the com­mis­sion has al­so be­gun procur­ing due dili­gence soft­ware to clar­i­fy cor­po­rate struc­tures and will col­lab­o­rate with lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al au­thor­i­ties to com­bat fi­nan­cial crimes re­lat­ed to gam­bling.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic ex­pressed sup­port for this ini­tia­tive.

Along High Street in San Fer­nan­do, An­gel Far­rel ex­pressed her sup­port for the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion but urged that some funds be al­lo­cat­ed to so­cial grants, such as hous­ing, in ad­di­tion to re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion.

"It is good for peo­ple to get sup­port sys­tems, but I think some of the mon­ey col­lect­ed from the li­cens­ing of these casi­no op­er­a­tors should go to­wards so­cial grants like hous­ing," Far­rel said.

Al­leyne Al­vara­do was more scep­ti­cal, say­ing he would wait to see if the pro­posed mea­sures were ac­tu­al­ly im­ple­ment­ed.