A new Gaming Authority should be established by the end of this month and will be reviewing agreements pertaining to the operating of casinos signed during the People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration, government says.
“I believe government will move to establish a Gaming Authority and that Gaming Authority under law, will have to consider applications,” Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman said yesterday, when asked about government’s role in the reviewing of casino licences.
The Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Act of 2006, provides for a Gaming Authority and states that only three casino licences may be distributed in each of Guyana’s 10 regions.
According to the Act, licences may also be issued to a new hotel or resort complex “with a minimum of 150 rooms” and holding a minimum rating prescribed by regulations.
The Act says that failure to comply with the amendments could result in fines of not less than $1 million and not more than $20 million or a jail term of not less than six months or not more than two years. The Act amended the Gambling Prevention Act Chapter 9:02 of 1902.
The amendment Act, No 30 of 2006, which is arranged in four sections, makes provision for the insertion of seven more sections – Sections 27 to 33 in the principal act. Section 27 says that no owner or occupier of any place shall permit the place to be operated as a casino otherwise than in accordance with a casino premises licence and Section 28 says that no person shall operate a casino otherwise than in accordance with a casino operator’s licence.
Section 29 says that subject to Sections 27 to 33 and the casino regulations, the Gaming Authority may issue to any person, subject to any condition it thinks fit, a casino premises licence authorizing any place to be operated as a casino and a casino operator’s licence authorising the person to operate a casino.
The same section says that no more than three casino premises licences may be issued in respect of any one of the ten administrative regions, and no casino premises licence may be issued except for a new hotel or resort complex with a minimum of 150 rooms allocated for accommodation and holding a minimum rating prescribed by regulations.
The Minister of Home Affairs, is responsible for making the regulations to establish the gaming authority and to vest it with the necessary powers to carry out its duties and functions, the Act states.
The minister may, among other functions, prescribe the form or content of any application for a licence; prescribe fees payable for any application and issuance of a licence; prescribe conditions for and restrictions on the issuing of any licence; and prescribe criteria to be considered in determining any application for a licence. The minister may also require the holder of any licence to keep records, registers, and other documentation, make any of these available for inspection, or make reports or returns; regulate any activity or conduct in or in relation to licensed casinos; and prescribe penalties for the breach of any casino regulations not exceeding the maximum penalties already set out.
Trotman said that by the end of this month he hopes the Gaming Authority will be established.
He said that as far as he was aware, only one casino licence has been granted.
Former president Donald Ramotar had said that he had no choice but to rescind a casino licence granted to the Indian developers of the proposed US$54 million Sun and Sand Hotel, since after one year and many promises there was no sign of work to make the venture a reality.
Former president Bharrat Jagdeo had been key in the Indian company setting up here. He had even attended the sod turning event for the hotel in July 2014, which was done with Ramotar and the principals of the company.
The Sun and Sand Hotel is not to be confused with the five-star Sun-n-Sand Hotel chain operating out of India. The latter has a website and numerous reviews on travel blogs, while the former has none.
This group is an affiliate of Sun and Sand Mining Resources that has applied to mine lands in the Cuyuni/Mazaruni area at Quartz Stone Gold Project, B-45.
That application has been heavily criticised by letter writer Faoud Khan, who says that the company registered in the United Kingdom since September 2011 with an authorised share capital of £100 or approximately $31,000.
The Sun and Sand Hotel venture was also met with criticism since it embodied the lack of information provided on companies investing in Guyana and the connections between a small handful of firms that are consistently being awarded government contracts, memoranda of understanding (MoU) and concessions for private development, especially under the Jagdeo administration.
Sources told this newspaper that Jagdeo was not pleased at the position taken by Ramotar, to inform the company that the licence would be taken away and given to a local, who had shown promise and evidence of investment in the same industry.
Sources close to the Indian company said the company has since lost interest in the hotel industry here but has turned to other revenue making avenues.
Ramotar also said that he had heard and read of criticisms by businessman Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivaraj that he (Ramotar) had signed a MoU for a casino licence for one of his establishments on Sheriff Street then withdrew it.
“I never signed a MoU with Shivraj for any casino licence. Shivraj had a licence for the Buddy’s Hotel and he sold it to the Princess people. Why would I, knowing that, grant him another one? I am not giving casino licences for people to sell as a money-making business,” Ramotar declared.
Trotman said that while he was not privy to Shivraj’s sale agreement for the then Buddy’s Hotel the casino operating rights may have also been included. He said too, that given the fact that he was not sure of the conditions of the sale agreement he could not say if any laws were broken. And as for the MOU signed by owner of Sleepin Hotel, Clifton Bacchus, with Ramotar, Trotman said that too will be reviewed.
“The government that granted the MOU is no longer in power. We now have the responsibility as government. We will have to examine the documents…,” Trotman said.
