Assembly approves new law to regulate gambling business |23 December 2014

A modern piece of legislation which will regulate activities related to gambling has been approved by the National Assembly.

At present the largest part of the gambling sector is being supervised by the Seychelles Licencing Authority (SLA) under different pieces of legislation some of which date back more than 25 years ago.

Presenting the Bill which seeks to set up the gambling law the Minister for Finance, Trade and Investment Pierre Laporte pointed out that a lot of changes have taken place in the gambling sector over the years, for instance different games through the internet, diversity and new technology have also been introduced which have required amendments to the law every now and then to meet the demands of these changes.

He said with increasing interest by both foreign and local investors in the gambling business, the new law will better supervise the development of the sector and ensure it functions in line with international norms and standards.

“The government had to review all the existing regulations related to the gambling activities but the new law will exclude such activities as bingo and lottery which are often related to fundraising,” Minister Laporte pointed out.

Minister Laporte said that for the time being activities like bingo, lottery and betting games will continue to be supervised by the SLA but in future the government will put in place a legal framework and decide which institution will be responsible for the supervision of these games so as to ensure more efficiency in their supervision.