A plenary sitting to that effect was presided by Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, on July 4, 2015.
Increasing worries by Cameroonians over the devastating effects of games of chance on household incomes, family stability, gamblers’ mental health and unearned tax revenue, are about to end. A bill seeking to streamline the sector and ensure effective control was adopted by the Senate during a plenary sitting on July 4, 2015, presided by Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, in the presence of the Vice Prime Minister, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies, Amadou Ali.
Listening to the report of the Committee for Constitutional Laws, Human Rights and Freedoms, Justice, Legislation and Regulation, and Administration, the Senators learnt that the bill governing entertainment games, money games and games of chance was aimed to fill inadequacies observed in the two-decade enforcement of the December 29, 1989 law governing such games in Cameroon.
According to the committee’s rapporteur, Senator Pius Ondoua, the bill not only defines conditions for running entertainment games, money games and games of chance, especially lotteries and online games, but also guarantees the prevention of excessive or pathological gambling, protection of minors and the fight against money laundering, fraud and criminal activities. More so, the bill institutes a Games Sector Special Support Fund.
Questions raised in plenary by Senators included the rationale for limiting the obligation to undertake social projects only to casinos, the insufficiency of sanctions against money laundering, the effective enforcement of the law, the relevance of the Special Support Fund, the need for an insurance policy and a tax on financial flows in these games.
Answers by the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Territorial Administration in charge of Regional and Local Councils, Jules Doret Ndongo, edified the Senators on measures taken to enforce the law, protect minors, sanction senior State and military functionaries who, it was claimed, were regular visitors to casinos, often staking millions of FCFA in just one go.
