The social clubs located in Singapore are about to go through some changes when it comes to the regulations which are applied on them. The country’s government is planning to introduce stricter rules regarding the slot machines use and their availability.
Singapore authorities have come up with a new test which will determine whether or not a given social club has the right to continue providing the slot machines operations to their customers. It will test the scope of their non-gaming amenities and the ultimate aim of this test is to make sure that the areas which host slot machines are part of club social activities only.
The Ministry of Home Affairs announced in a recent statement that the casino operators which do not meet these requirements determined by the government will have to remove all slot machines from their gambling venue and cease the operations by the 30th of April, 2018. K. Shanmugam, the Home Affairs, and Law Minister made an announcement at a briefing this Tuesday, saying that there are suspicions that some of the clubs are only talking and not necessarily taking actions.
According to him and his extensive observation of the gambling industry in Singapore, there are casino operators which pay lip service and only pretend they provide a wide variety of services to their customers but primarily focus on the jackpot machines available on site. At the moment there are 82 slot machines venues operating and as many as 1,900 jackpot machines located all over Singapore.
Among the new rules which should be applied to all slot machines rooms located in Singapore, there are more stringent criteria for what can be defined as “fruit machine permits”, a reduction in the number of machines the slot machines venues can run, and also stricter rules regarding the people who can use the jackpot machines in question. Currently, the regulation gives operators the permission to have slot machines, if the club operates at least two other recreational facilities.
If the new rules and the test he is talking about are applied, this number could be reduced by a third, since there are allegedly numerous venues which do not comply with the regulations. There are also two casino resorts located in Singapore, which are a subject to many social safeguards. They are specifically designed to mitigate any risks and protect the local gamblers from any harm.
Several football clubs based in Singapore, which have not been active for quite some time now, have allegedly continued their slot machine rooms business. By running them, they amassed gross revenue amounting to between SGD165,000 (US$120,700) and SGD11.3 million.
