17 June 2009
Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday voted unanimously to relax restrictions on gambling.
The bill, produced by the Assembly's own working commission on economic activities and services, will allow casinos to be built pretty well anywhere in the country, whereas the 1994 law that it replaces had put certain areas out of bounds, notably the off-shore islands, because of their fragile ecosystems.
The 1994 law stated that casinos could only be built as part of a complex including a luxury hotel with at least 250 rooms. The bill scraps this, stating only that casinos must be built "in association with one or more hotels of not less than four star ranking" (in Maputo City, the obligatory ranking goes up to five stars).
The minimum investment demanded of a company seeking to set up a casino has been cut from 15 million to eight million US dollars.
The bill also legalizes on-line gambling, and will allow the establishment of rooms full of slot machines in places that are not part of the casinos (though owned by the casino company). In other words, companies would be able to set up slot machines in places such as shopping centres, thus vastly increasing the temptation to gamble, attracting people who would not normally set foot inside a four star or five star hotel.
These changes are justified by the need to attract more tourists to the country, and the body with authority over casinos is switched from the Finance to the Tourism Ministry (although the Finance Ministry will retain the power to inspect casinos, and collects the casino taxes).
The chairperson of the Economic Activities Commission, Lutero Simango, who is a deputy from the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition, stressed that the 1994 law was "timid" in its approach to casinos, and was now out of date. He claimed that society now had "a different way of thinking" about games of chance.
Under the 1994 law only two casinos had been set up, one in Maputo, and one in Namaacha on the border with Swaziland. Simango wanted more, and said the objective of the bill was to make gambling more attractive to investors, and thus strengthen the development of tourism.
The first attempt to legalise casinos was in December 1992, and the government bill on the matter ran into stiff resistance on moral and political grounds. Although the Assembly of those days consisted solely of members and supporters of the ruling Frelimo Party, it gave the government a hard time. Some deputies pointed out that gambling could lead to increased prostitution, to the practice of loans at extortionate interest rates to pay gambling debts, and to an overall decline in moral values.
Facing the strong possibility of defeat, the government withdrew the bill, but re-introduced it in August 1994. The bill was passed after a highly charged debate, with many deputies making clear that they had strong ethical objections to casinos.
But on Wednesday the bill to liberalise the gambling regulations sailed through without anyone, from either Frelimo or Renamo, raising ethical problems. One after another, deputies from both sides of the house repeated the same mantra - casinos would bring in tourists, they would create jobs, they would be a valuable source of state revenue.
Deputies echoed Simango - the social attitudes towards gambling had changed, they claimed, though there is no evidence whatsoever for this.
Jaime Neto, a Frelimo deputy from the central province of Sofala, wanted a casino in the port city of Beira, and another in the Gorongosa National Park, the jewel in the country's tourism crown. Angelo Thai wanted a casino at the beach resort of Ponta de Ouro in the far south, and one in Matola, although this city is better known for heavy industry than for tourism.
Alcido Nguenha, a former education minister, claimed that casinos would allow Mozambique to take better advantage of the tourism spin-offs from the football World Cup due to be held in South Africa in 2010, and would help Mozambique become a winner in the competition between tourism destinations.
He admitted there was a danger that gambling might push citizens into bankruptcy, but brushed this consideration aside with the claim that "the benefits greatly exceed the risks". He even regarded casinos as "strengthening the fight against poverty".
The sole voice of caution came from opposition jurist Maximo Dias, who warned against a "proliferation of casinos", and thought that "implementation should be very prudent". But even he joined the unanimous vote in favour of the bill.
The bill contains some safeguards. Thus employees of casinos are not allowed to lend money to clients, or to participate, directly or through other people, in the games, and the government's General Gaming Inspectorate must authorize all the equipment used in casinos.
A range of people are barred from entering the playing rooms in casinos - including members of the government, bank managers, senior tax officials, and people who have officially been declared bankrupt.
The bill acknowledges that casinos can be used for money-laundering, and charges the General Gaming Inspectorate with ensuring that this does not happen in Mozambican casinos.
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