Singapore’s two casinos are either getting better at compliance or the city-state’s new gambling regulator is slacking off on the job.
The Casino Regulatory Authority of Singapore (CRA) recently issued its 2017-18 annual report, covering the 12 months ending March 31, during which the regulator levied total financial penalties of SG$60k (US$43,400) against the operators of the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa integrated resorts.
Genting Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa earned the bulk (SG$55k) of the year’s fines for permitting three underage gamblers and one excluded person to gain access to its casino floor. Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands was penalized SG$5k for allowing a permanent resident to access its gaming floor without having paid the SG$100 casino entry levy the CRA imposes on local gamblers.
The total fines issued in 2017-18 represent a 63.6% decline from the SG$165k reported in the CRA’s 2016-17 report, which was itself a 60.5% decline from the SG$417.5k worth of financial penalties reported in 2015-16. All of which suggests that the casinos are learning from their past mistakes.