Casino bill to go before Parlt in July
By
OLIVER RIDDELL
in Wellington Legislation that allows for casinos to be developed will be introduced to Parliament at the beginning of July.
The Minister of Tourism, Mr Hunt, said the Casino Control Bill would do three things: ® Set up a Casino Control Authority to license and regulate casinos, with the power to cancel and suspend licences.
• Authorise the authority to call for initial applications for two casino licences, one in the North Island and one in the South Island, with each licence having a three-year monopoly in its island.
• Impose strict controls to regulate cheating, graft and other offences, together with a casino inspectorate under the control of the Secretary of Internal Affairs designed to ensure casino licences complied with regulations and to assist in detecting ofMr Hunt said that granting of further licences after the threeyear monopoly, either for the same licensees to run additional casinos or for new operators to enter the industry, would be at the discretion of the Casino Control Authority. Much of this pending legislation has been adapted from Western Australian and Queensland models, where casinos were running
successfully, he said. The bill had met with the approval of officials from Queensland’s Casino Control Division, who had been in New Zealand recently to help.
Mr Hunt was confident that Parliament would pass legislation by November that allowed for casino development and that the new authority would be calling for submissions by the end of the year from people wanting to run casinos.
The Casino Control Bill would be subject to a conscience vote.
Mr Hunt said in-depth investigation would be made of the background of potential casino operators before licensing.
Casino licences would be held only by public companies listed in New Zealand and with a majority New Zealand Shareholding. The principal responsibility for investigating applicants for casino licences would rest with the police, he said. Complaints from patrons would be investigated by the casino inspectors.
Offences created under the legislation would relate specifically to casino misconduct, such as cheating, forging casino chips and conducting unauthorised games.
Funding for this regulatory regime would be provided substantially by the industry itself, through licence fees and a levy to be set by the authority, Mr Hunt said.
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Press, 30 May 1989, Page 2
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379Casino bill to go before Parlt in July Press, 30 May 1989, Page 2
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