Government through Ministry of Finance and National Planning in collaboration with Ministry of Tourism has drafted a National Gaming and Lotteries Policy and the layman’s bill towards the establishment a National Gaming and Lotteries Board to respond to the growing trends and threats affecting the casino and gaming industry at large.
Speaking when graced the Casino Operators Stakeholder’s meeting at Lusaka’s Government Complex, Minister of Tourism Rodney Sikumba says the policy and law will bring Zambian gaming and lotteries landscape in conformity with the rest of the world in restricting and regulating the gaming industry activities and keep up with emerging issues.
He says in order to reduce proliferation and manage the gaming industry in the long run, Government regulatory and legislative measures will among others, ensure that gambling is undertaken in a responsible manner to avoid degrading of morals and that business operations are restricted to permitted locations only, opening hours must be restricted and clearly spelt out age limit for players.
The Minister says Government and has embarked on a number of reforms that are aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing the cost of doing business such as the reduction in the multiplicity of licenses.
And Financial Intelligence Centre Acting Director General Victor Zimba in a presentation made for him by Senior Compliance and Prevention officer Levy Pezulu says in 2022, the Centre received a total of 5, 745 Suspicious Transaction Reports from entities representing an increase of 123% compared to 2021.
He states that the value of the reports received in 2022 was K5.97 billion representing a decrease of 8.6% and that trends observed in 2022 were mostly on suspicion of large or unusual cash deposits and withdrawals, large inward and outward remittances inconsistent with customer profile.
Meanwhile, Casino operators representative Ricky Moodley said operators have a problem with Immigration officers that have a habit of raiding Casinos and rendering the facilities empty because of fear of the officers.
He said even people with people with permits because immigration locks them up in stadia for unknown reasons and hence called on the Minister to help the association in this area.
