The Gambling Amendment Bill (No 3) is currently being debated by Parliament and may pass within the next couple of months.
The Bill focuses on non-casino Class 4 gambling. Its policy objectives are to:
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Increase transparency of grant-making from the proceeds of Class 4 gambling
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Reduce potential conflict-of-interest situations between Class 4 operators, venues and grant recipients
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Improve transparency surrounding the use of management companies
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Simplify compliance and reduce costs for societies and venue owners in some areas
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Ensure the efficiency of the Gambling Act appeal processes.
You can read the Bill as reported by the Select Committee here. We will keep you informed of its progress in future editions of Gambits and include more information about the changes to the Gambling Act and how these will affect you.
Management Companies
While the final wording of the Bill is still to be confirmed, we anticipate that management companies will be brought into the Act’s regulatory regime for the first time.
We expect the main impact will be that if you are a Class 4 operator who uses a management company you will need to supply a profile of the company, its chief executive and anyone else who exercises a significant influence within the company. We are preparing our licensing processes for this change and will keep you informed as to what you need to do.
What we need from you
To help us scope this work, and to enable us to help prepare management companies for their new obligations, Licensing Compliance staff will be contacting Class 4 operators by email to ask for further detail around the use of management companies. Management companies are those contracted by Class 4 societies to carry out specific gambling-related functions. The Bill ensures that these companies are covered by the Act and that they can be audited and monitored just like societies.
More specifically, the definition of “key person” in section 4(1) (a) will be extended to include a “management services provider”. “Management services provider” is defined as meaning “a person who, under a contract or arrangement, provides to the corporate society ongoing services that –
(a) directly relate to the conduct of Class 4 gambling; and
(b) are not solely confined to servicing gambling equipment at a Class 4 venue; and
(c) would, in the absence of that contract or arrangement, be performed by the corporate society itself.
