H-Metro
THE call by Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, for betting houses and casino operators to abide by the Lotteries and Gaming Board (LGB) regulations is welcome.
The Government has been losing a lot of revenue from betting houses, which were not operating in line with the LGB regulations.
Most of the betting houses and casinos have been declaring doctored financial reports to evade paying taxes, which has been depriving the Government of the taxes it requires to finance its social obligations.
Minister Kazembe made the call on Monday on the occasion of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with N-Soft, a global technology company which has strong footprints throughout the world.
Through this initiative, the partners will embark on a pilot project where they will deploy state-of-the-art technology to monitor gaming activities.
Minister Kazembe noted that the gaming industry, like any other sector, needed to be regulated to ensure they also contribute revenue in form of taxes.
He also advised the LGB to investigate some of the betting houses, which do not have ablution facilities.
The coming in of N-Soft is good news to the gaming sector, which has not been properly regulated of which has seen some of the regulations being violated by unscrupulous betting houses.
It also emerged that there has been phenomenal growth in the last two years in this industry.
However, there are genuine fears that most operators have been declaring fictitious financial results to the LGB, in order for them to beat the system and ensure they don’t pay what they are supposed to pay, in taxes.
Most of the local betting houses are declaring their earnings in local currency yet most transactions are done in multi-currency.
By not declaring their earnings in foreign currency, it means they might be part of some underhand deals which, in the end, deprive the State of its earnings, in terms of taxes.
This is an area where the LGB, the police and Zimra need to investigate and bring to book rogue betting houses and casino operators.
Following the signing of the MoU, between the LGB and N-Soft, it is our hope that transparency will emerge in the sector.
With reports that LGB is inundated with calls from people who want to venture into the gaming industry, it is a clear indication that the sector is big and has a lot of room for it to grow.
With over 250 betting houses countrywide, the LGB and police should step up their act and weed out the bad apples.
Those who are found violating the LGB regulations should be fined or lose their operators’ licences. All the sectors of the economy contribute to the Government through taxes.
Those who were operating illegally should heed Minister Kazembe’s advice seriously.
The message is very clear, from now onwards, there won’t be any room for such unscrupulous people.
