President assents to Gambling Control Act 2022

President Halimah Yacob assented to the Gambling Control Act 2022 on 25 March 2022, after Parliament passed the bill on 11 March 2022¹. The Act was published in the Government Gazette, Electronic Edition, on 4 April 2022 at 5 pm¹. It is numbered No. 15 of 2022¹.

The Act consolidates the law on the suppression of unlawful gambling and the regulation of authorized gambling services outside of casinos¹. It repeals the Betting Act 1960, the Common Gaming Houses Act 1961, the Private Lotteries Act 2011 and the Remote Gambling Act 2014, and makes related and consequential amendments to the Casino Control Act 2006 and certain other Acts¹.

Under the Act, "gambling" means betting, engaging in gaming activity, or participating in a lottery¹. "Betting" is defined as making or accepting a bet involving payment or staking of money, a money equivalent or anything else of value on the outcome of a race, competition, sporting event or other event or process taking place in Singapore or elsewhere, the likelihood of anything occurring or not occurring, or whether anything is or is not true¹. The Act also defines "totalisator" as a system used to enable persons to invest money on such outcomes and to divide and distribute the totalisator pool among those who successfully guess the results¹.

The Act establishes the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Singapore, which is the Casino Regulatory Authority of Singapore continued and renamed under section 3 of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Singapore Act 2022¹. It creates offenses covering unlawful betting operations, gaming and lotteries, unlawful gambling places, gaming machine-related offenses, and protection of underaged individuals and excluded persons¹. It also provides for class licenses for lower-risk gambling services, gambling venue and game approvals, and blocking of access to online remote gambling services and payment transactions¹.

What it means for players

The Act replaces four separate statutes with a single framework covering gambling outside casinos in Singapore¹. It authorizes some gambling and prohibits the rest as unlawful gambling¹. The Act includes provisions on social gambling, underaged individuals and excluded persons, and allows a licensee to refuse to pay winnings to an underaged individual or an excluded person¹. It also covers advertising of unlawful gambling and blocking of online remote gambling services and payment transactions¹. The full practical effect on players depends on the subsidiary legislation and license conditions made under the Act, which are not detailed in the sources.

What happens next

The Act comes into operation on a date the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette¹. According to the commencement dates recorded on Singapore Statutes Online, sections 137(1) and (2) commence on 1 June 2022, and Parts 1 to 12, sections 136, 137(3), 138, 139, 140, and the First and Second Schedules commence on 1 August 2022². The Act has since been amended by later legislation, including Act 31 of 2023 and Act 29 of 2024².

For more on how Singapore's rules fit into the region, see Gambling Laws in Asia: What Is Legal in 12 Jurisdictions and Recent and Pending Gambling Law Changes in Asia. For the local picture, see Can I Gamble in Singapore?.