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Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) are proposing a change to the law that would fix casino entry levies for Singaporeans and Singapore permanent residents at S$150 (US$114) per day and S$3,000 yearly.
The change is part of the Casino Control (Amendment) Bill introduced in Parliament by the Minister of State for Home Affairs and for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling, which was proposed after an oversight of the 2019 order, as reported by Singapore news agencies.
The 2019 order included an increase to casino entry levies on Apr 4, 2019 from S$100 daily and S$2,000 annually, for a period of five years. However, the expiry of the 2019 order had been overlooked by the MHA and the levies automatically reverted to lower rates on 4 April this year.
“It was always the government’s intent to maintain the higher entry levies beyond the five-year period,” the ministries stated.
The ministries also assured that they have tightened their processes to avoid similar future incidents, reaffirming that there were no more plans to further increase the levies. Despite that, relevant authorities will continue to monitor and make changes when necessary.
The proposed change in laws would make breaching a Family Visit Limit for casinos a punishable offence, with fines up to S$10,000 and imprisonment up to 12 months if found guilty.
In July earlier, Singapore lowered the cash deposit threshold for due diligence checks in casino customers as part of Singapore’s updated National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
