Amendments to the Gaming Act are only a week old, but Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar insisted the government will begin enforcing the law as soon as the proper infrastructure is in place and that includes an investigation unit.

“The law was just passed.  I’m sure in the bill it says the Gaming Board would have to develop an enforcement unit and once that has been developed we should proceed with haste to enforce the gaming laws and to ensure that persons who are operating without a license are shut down,” D’Aguilar said.       

“We have just passed it.  Let us digest it, get the infrastructure in place and then I’m sure we’ll move in due course.” 

The government and gaming operators have agreed to taxing operators with net taxable revenue under $24 million at a rate of 15 percent and anything above a rate of 17.5 percent.

An additional five percent tax has been imposed on winnings up to $1,000 and 7.5 percent on winnings over that figure. 

The minister of tourism accepted that the initial sliding scale tax was ambitious.