A casino in St Maarten.
PHILIPSBURG--Casinos in St Maarten could be required to identify players showing signs of excessive gambling, intervene when there are reasonable grounds to suspect gambling-related harm, and deny access to people considered at risk under a proposed National Ordinance on Gambling.
The draft legislation would also establish a register for people who voluntarily exclude themselves temporarily from casino gambling and introduce restrictions on gambling advertising, including a prohibition on targeting minors and people identified as being at increased risk of gambling-related harm.
Under the proposed rules, gambling licence holders would have to maintain a documented policy to prevent gambling addiction and ensure that their staff understand how to identify and respond to gambling-related harm.
Gambling could not be offered to anyone under 18. Advertising and promotional activities could not be misleading or aggressive, target minors or designated vulnerable people, encourage excessive gambling, or take place through door-to-door visits.
The draft would also prohibit gambling advertisements on television and radio between 6:00am and 7:00pm. Digital advertising could not target people who had self-excluded or had been identified as being at increased risk of gambling-related harm.
Promotions would have to warn about the risks of excessive gambling and clarify whether participation was one-time or recurring, where applicable. Advertising would be considered misleading if it suggested someone had already won a prize or would obtain one by taking a particular action when the person only had a chance of winning.
Exclusion register
The proposed ordinance would require the director of the Sint Maarten Gambling Authority to maintain a register of people who voluntarily exclude themselves temporarily from casino gambling.
The register would be intended to help prevent gambling-related harm to those individuals and their families.
Casinos would receive only an indication of whether a person was listed, rather than access to the underlying details. The register would be subject to data-protection and security requirements.
Information would be removed from the active register after the exclusion period, subject to a minimum six-month period before removal. It would then be retained outside the register in pseudonymised form for policy and statistical purposes.
Under the draft, casinos could not admit people whose identity or age could not be properly verified, anyone under 18, or people listed on the self-exclusion register.
They would also have to refuse entry to people they reasonably suspected could be harmed by excessive gambling or addiction, as well as people who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicating substances. Casino operators would be required to record internal and external indicators of excessive gambling.
If there were reasonable grounds to suspect excessive gambling or addiction, the operator would have to speak personally with the player, explain the observed behaviour and risks, advise on ways to limit gambling and available treatment, and consider whether the gambling could harm the person's finances, family life, health or employment.
This is a draft National Ordinance on Gambling. The provisions described are proposed rules and are not already in force.
