Scheduled to be submitted to parliament next week, the legislation would grant additional powers to the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), allowing it to issue larger fines to casinos.
Other reforms in the legislation include:
- Regular reviews of casino licences to be conducted as public inquiries with Royal Commission-like powers
- Compelling casino operators to provide full disclosure of requested information and notify the NICC of any breach or likely breach of the law
- Appointment of independent compliance auditors to report to the NICC on casino operators’ compliance with their regulatory obligations
- Requiring casinos to give regulators continuous access to gaming data
- Phasing out cash transactions of more than $1,000 per patron per day and introducing cashless gaming
- Introducing card-only gaming to assist with financial crime monitoring and prevention
- Requiring close associates of a casino to demonstrate suitability
- Increasing the scope for probity assessments of a casino operator’s related entities within the same group
- Establishing a multi-agency coordination committee with NSW Police and the NSW Crime Commission
Minister for hospitality and racing Kevin Anderson stated, “Reforms to be introduced to parliament next week deliver on all 19 recommendations of the Bergin Inquiry and introduce additional measures to strengthen casinos’ compliance requirements, including some key recommendations from the Victorian Royal Commission into Crown Resorts.”
The proposed reforms also include significant penalties, with the NICC having scope to appropriately deal with serious misconduct uncovered by recent inquiries. The Queensland government has similarly proposed tightening laws for land-based casinos, and the NSW government has put forth new betting and racing legislation that would ban certain inducements to gamble.
Star Entertainment Group, in response to the reforms, has expressed support for the government and will review the details of the proposed changes and their potential implications for its operations.
