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ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi challenged the Opposition UNC to tell the population who it was trying to protect through its refusal to support passage of the Gambling (Gaming and Betting) Control Bill, 2021.
He issued this challenge during debate on the bill in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Al-Rawi was surprised that Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was not the first UNC MP to respond to Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the debate and was absent from the sitting.
"The Opposition is on record as saying they do not support this law. No amount of fancy footwork about 'they support the concept of regulations' is going to take them out of the fact, that they cannot explain to the republic of Trinidad and Tobago or to international agencies or to the United Nations Security Council resolutions or to the IMF (International Monetary Fund)."
He said it was the IMF "which has rated TT as the only country in their pack of assessments that has no regulations for a gaming industry."
Al-Rawi recalled the UNC had said it was going to court over this law and if so, "We will happily meet them there."
A Cabinet minute of June 6, 2013, confirmed on June 13, 2013 (when Persad-Bissessar was prime minister), he said, showed that Cabinet "approved the establishment of a legal and regulatory framework for the gambling and gaming industry in TT."
Al-Rawi said Cabinet also approved "a working group to establish all of the parameters around this law."
On March 26, 2015, he said, Persad-Bissessar's Cabinet approved the gaming bill, which was laid in Parliament along with associated applications and regulations. He said this was the bill which the PNM brought to Parliament, which the UNC rejected.
"The UNC arrives to this Parliament, eight years after 2013, and has absolutely no shame in telling this country that they will not support legislation again."
Al-Rawi reiterated his question to Persad-Bissessar in absentia.
"Why will the UNC not support gaming legislation?"
He said, "It is a fact that there are thousands of gaming devices in operation..upward of 10,000 devices in operation."
Al-Rawi said in the past, he has served as an attorney for many gaming and gambling entities.
"I in fact have members of my own family who have been involved in the gaming industry for a very long time."
As Attorney General, having drafted this law, he said, "I can say that I support the full regulation, in the fullest extent possible for all entities."
He said the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) had indicated in 2017, six out of 253 people registered in the gambling sector with the BIR paid taxes, and in 2018, 47 out of 251 people paid taxes. In 2019, he said 36 out of 246 people paid taxes. Last year , he said, 18 out of 247 registered with the BIR, paid taxes.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), he said, reported that for 2013- 2014, only 64 (gaming) entities were registered with it. He said that number fell to ten in 2015.
In 2015-2016, Al-Rawi said only 24 entities registered with the FIU. For the periods 2016-2017, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, he said 19, 12 and three entities respectively registered with the FIU.
Against this all of this information, Al-Rawi asked, "Who is the UNC protecting?
"I can tell you who they are not protecting."
Al-Rawi said the legislation establishes a structure for gaming establishments to be properly registered "and come into the light."
Under the legislation, Al-Rawi said gaming establishments can open bank accounts because they are not blacklisted, make their fair contribution via taxes and their workers can for the first time "get a mortgage...can buy a home...because their revenue can be factored as legitimate revenue and earnings."
He said UNC MP Rudranath Indarsingh, as a member of the joint select committee which examined the bill, was a sleepwalker during that JSC's deliberations if he could claim there was no stakeholder consultation on the legislation.
"Clearly he was asleep."
The amendments made to the bill when it was passed in the Senate on June 21, he said, were due in large measure to the contributions of independent senators.
He supported Finance Minister Colm Imbert's earlier statements that opposition senators offered nothing valuable in terms of improving the legislation when the Senate debated the bill.
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