Al-Rawi: Stiff penalties for Gambling Bill necessary

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi defended the stiff penalties included in the report on the Gambling, Gaming and Betting Bill 2016 saying the provisions were necessary to strengthen the ability of the police to pursue criminals who may be using casinos to launder cash.

Al-Rawi responded to remarks from Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh during a debate on the Bill at Parliament on Friday who accused the government of “over-criminalising” the report.

Citing reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which suggested a poor regulation of private members clubs and casinos in TT, Al-Rawi said the measures were necessary to ensure the police could properly investigate these institutions.

“They say in relation to recommendations 22 and 28, that we have no supervision for private members clubs, as the IMF says TT is the only country in the world with an economy of our size to have an unsupervised regulatory environment.

“In the Financial Action Task Force and the anti-corruption drive under Prime Minister Dr Rowley one of the largest areas, the Financial Action Task Force, produced a written report to say the abuse that can be had for people with the proceeds of cash.

He said in his experience that there was a lot of room for abuse in unregulated casinos where criminals could benefit from laundering cash.

Al-Rawi also asserted that due to aggressive legislative measures aimed at cracking down on money laundering, over $36.8 million in crash was seized and 17 cases before the courts.