Government has published the Gambling (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for debate at the next Meeting of the Legislative Assembly.

Accompanying Extraordinary Gazette #81, which is published on the Gazette website www.gazettes.gov.ky today (Wednesday, 24 October 2018), the proposed legislation seeks to increase the penalties for engaging in acts of illegal gambling.

The purpose is to make the penalties more of a deterrent than they are now, with stiffer punishment proposed for those perpetrating illegal gambling than for individual participants.

While illegal gambling has been a chronic problem in the Cayman Islands, the penalties have not undergone a revision since the first enactment of the Gambling Law in 1964. As such, in today’s climate, they do not properly reflect the gravity of this type of illegal activity.

Examined against the monetary returns, current penalties have not been persuasive enough to serve as a deterrent to past and would-be offenders. This has presented a challenge for law enforcement authorities.

Police Intelligence reports between 2015 and 2018 show that there has been a steady increase in the number of incidents involving persons engaged in different forms of illegal gambling activities. This includes what is colloquially referred to as “numbers” or “lottery”.

These statistics also suggest a strong connection between certain crimes and gambling activities. This is evidenced by the number of reported robberies including firearm related robberies, assaults and other violent crimes that have been proven to be gambling related.

To address these challenges, the Government believes that it would be prudent to generally impose higher penalties for engaging in any form of illegal gambling.

As such, the proposed legislation attaches tougher penalties to offences involving ownership or control of premises in which illegal gambling is conducted than to offences involving possession of tickets related to gambling and similar acts of participation.

The difference in penalties aims to deter the ownership, establishment or occupation of any premises which will be used to facilitate the participation in illegal gambling.

As a companion legislative measure, Cabinet has approved the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order, 2018 to identify specified offences under the Gambling Law as criminal lifestyle offences.

By so doing, Government recognises that the illegal gains derived from gambling can be used to support a criminal lifestyle from which a defendant may benefit. As such, it seeks to extend the penalties available under the Proceeds of Crime Law (2018 Revision) also to gambling activities.

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IMAGE: CNBC