On Tuesday the Commission on Economic Activities and Services of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, visited the casino to collect suggestions for changes to the 1994 law that governs games of chance.
According to a press release from the Assembly, the chairman of the casino board of directors, Jacinto Veloso, made it clear that he does not want to see another casino established in Maputo.
Currently there are two types of casino envisaged in the law - a casino open to the public, such as the one in Namaacha on the border with Swaziland, has a monopoly on gambling over a particular area (a radius of 75 kilometres in the Namaacha case).
But casinos opened under the regime of "special licensing" do not have such a monopoly. These casinos, such as the Polana Casino, are, in theory, private clubs, open only to their members. Of course, any adult wishing to play can easily buy a membership card.
Currently the Namaacha and Polana casinos are the only ones that exist in Mozambique. But in theory, there is nothing to prevent other companies applying for "special licences" to run casinos in Maputo.
Veloso warned the Commission that any lack of care in granting such licences might endanger the success of casinos.
His proposal was that "special licence" casinos should also enjoy a monopoly - he wanted to outlaw the building of any other casino within 50 kilometres of a "special licence" gambling house. For this privilege, the casino could pay an extra fee to the state whenever its licence came up for renewal.
Veloso also objected to a clause in the 1994 law which states that casino buildings, even if built from scratch by the investor (as is the case with the new Polana Casino premises, on the sea front), will eventually revert to the state. He thought such a measure could only be justified if the state was obliged to intervene in the casino because of some serious problem for which the investor was to blame.
The Polana Casino has been in operation since 1996.
According to Veloso its tax contribution to the Mozambican state is running at 1.8 million US dollars a year.
SOURCE: AIM
