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June 25 - The parliament of Mozambique has voted unanimously to reduce some of the restrictions on gambling in the country. The bill replaces a 1994 law that made it quite difficult to establish venues for gambling. For example, Mozambique law had disallowed gambling in offshore islands to prevent damage to their ecosystems.
Other aspects of the 1994 law that have also been changed included a law which only allowed casinos to be built as part of luxury hotels with 250 rooms or more. The new bill allows all four and five-star hotels to build casinos. Additionally, companies that wanted to set up a casino were required to make a minimum investment of US$15 million. That number has been dropped to US$8 million.
Online gambling is legalized through the new bill and slots rooms will be permitted outside of the casinos in other venues owned by the casino companies. For example, a casino company would be able to set up a slot machine room in a shopping centre. This would significantly increase the number of casual gamblers who are not vacationing in casino resort.
Along with these changes, the authority over casinos moved from the Finance Ministry to the Tourism Ministry. Mozambique hopes to attract more tourists to the country by relaxing the standards on gambling. Moreover, they hope to increase state revenues from taxes on gambling establishments.
The bill comes as a major change in Mozambican policy. When gambling was introduced as a possibility in 1992, it was met with such stiff opposition that the bill was tabled until 1994. The new relaxation of standards shows a real change in Mozambican politicians' feelings about gambling and about the need for tourism and state revenues.
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