Singapore has activated tougher casino-operator suitability tests and mandatory patron-information sharing for financial-crime controls, as a second tranche of amendments to the city-state’s casino law took effect on September 21st.
The measures allow the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) to consider unethical conduct and systemic failures in internal controls or corporate governance when assessing whether an operator remains suitable to hold a casino license.
The regulator may take disciplinary action if it determines that breaches of those criteria have affected an operator’s suitability, according to a joint statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Social and Family Development.
Casino operators must also share patron information with one another to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. The ministries said the requirement would allow operators to respond more quickly when a patron is found to present a higher financial-crime risk.
The changes form part of the Casino Control (Amendment) Act 2024, which was passed in September 2024. A first tranche of provisions took effect the following month, making the commencement of the second tranche—rather than the original approval of the reforms—the latest development.
Electronic credits and gaming software
The newly effective provisions also give the GRA explicit authority to regulate betting and lotteries inside casinos, in addition to games of chance, and to approve gaming software, including software deployed on mobile devices. Any approved mobile gaming software may only be deployed and played within casino premises.
New supporting regulations classify electronic credits as casino chips, while allowing other wagering instruments to be prescribed in the future if the GRA considers them suitable. The framework provides for cashless gaming, but does not itself mean that every new payment or wagering product has been approved.
The second tranche also introduces offenses covering the withdrawal of a bet after a game’s result is known and the recording of non-card games, such as gaming machines, to identify play patterns. Previously, the specific prohibitions covered placing a bet after the result was known and recording cards dealt during a game.
An excluded person may now be held liable for entering, remaining in or gambling at a casino if the person knew, or reasonably ought to have known, that an exclusion was in force. The change removes the need for the GRA to prove that the person was actually aware of the exclusion when entering.
Under the responsible gambling measures, breaching a family visit limit is now a criminal offense. The National Council on Problem Gambling may also immediately replace an exclusion order with a visit limit, or vice versa, removing a process that previously took one to two months and could leave an individual temporarily without either safeguard.
