Bookmakers once again seek amendments to licensing requirements
Published by www.jamaicaobserver.com on Jan 23, 2008
Jan 23, 2008

For years local bookmakers have been trying to get government to make amendments to regulations that they say would ease the stranglehold that bureaucratic red tape has on expansion of the business.

At the forefront of the bookmakers' ire is the annual licensing requirement for members of the sector, which they say interferes with the implementation of long-term planning due to the uncertainty which arises. In fact, in a paid advertisement taken out in this newspaper last Saturday, entitled "Is it Fair?", bookmakers questioned the fact that they need to reapply for a licence every year while the government-owned Caymanas Track Limited has a 15-year licence.

"It happens only once a year but yet again it is a major distraction to get all these papers and apply every year," noted Edgerton Chang, chairman of Capital Betting and Wagering Company. "You are talking about everything that goes along with having a licence for a longer period being affected... stability, planning, financing, etc."

Clayton Mcree of Champion Betting Limited believes the requirement is a 'slap in the face' to the majority of bookmakers, who have been in the business for an extended period, and therefore should not have to encounter such rigorous red tape.

"Most bookmakers, on average, have been in the business for over 10 years but yet still we have to reapply for a licence every year," argued Mcree. "It affects all your intentions. If you intend to expand, you have to put that on hold because you don't know whether you will be getting back a licence.

"One year is just not enough... If Caymanas wants to go ahead with an expansion, they don't have to worry about getting back a licence; they can always invest more without having that over their head," added Mcree. " But we can spend millions of dollars to expand our business and then get denied a licence."

Xavier Chin, chief executive officer of the single largest bookmaker, Track Price Plus, told the Business Observer that it is "a waste of time" to issue a one-year licence, suggesting that the administration move towards a five-year licensing scheme that is open to occasional due diligence.

"If you issue a five-year licence it doesn't matter, it's just that every year you might have to do certain due diligence in the matter of a balance sheet or whatever, but it's still a licence that can be revoked at any time," said Chin.

Derek Peart, executive director of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BG&LC), the government agency that regulates the gaming industry, acknowledged the problems being faced by bookmakers, and said that plans were under way to have a five-year licence which is open to an annual review.

"There are ammendments that are in train for the bookmakers to be licensed over a five-year period with annual review," declared Peart. "The five-year licence will facilitate longer term planning and also investment."

"It goes without saying that the conditions attached to the licences will also include similar requirements such that breaches that might occur, as they do now, the commission will take the appropriate action," said the executive director. "The drafting has been done and it is now in the hands of the chief parliamentary council as part of amendments for both the bookmaking sector as well as other sectors within the economy."

However, the bookmakers are unmoved by Peart's revelation, as they note that they have been hearing about these plans for years. As highlighted in the print advertisement, Chang notes that former Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Errol Ennis, stated in parliament as far back as 1996 that the licensing requirement would be removed and it still has not been done. Ennis had noted back then, that in exchange for easing the restrictions, bookmakers had to be more efficient in reporting their sales through the computerisation of their operations, which Chang said has already been achieved.

"That was over 11 years ago, why has it taken so long?" questioned Chang. "Government has seen our point of view... you saw the merit; you brought it to parliament... so why don't you follow through?"

Meanwhile, Chin from Track Price Plus has also criticised the government of being hypocritical in limiting horseracing on Sundays while permitting electronic gaming - with electronic horseracing - the same privilege.

"Look at gaming, you are going to tell me that you don't have gaming on a Sunday but every games room is open (on a Sunday), but yet still the racetrack can't have Sunday racing," said Chin angrily. "We can't have Sunday racing but the gaming lounges have Sunday gaming with plastic horses running.

"So they want to look like they are a fixture of outstanding morals but at the backside of it they are giving out games room licence on a Sunday," added Chin. "It is just a confused, erratic, nonsensical way of running an industry... we are asking the industry to be liberated and to be modernised and taken out of the dark ages... right now on the internet you can go and get racing anywhere, any day and wager and open an account; this is the only country that is still limited to hours and to days."

According to the most updated statistics, from January to December 2007, local and overseas racing sales totalled $2.1 billion across the 359 betting shops in the industry, while sales at Caymanas Park and its off-track betting parlours was $3.9 billion.

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