02 Mar CMS WILL IMPROVE SUPERVISION

CMS WILL IMPROVE SUPERVISION OF ONLINE CASINOS, NLRC DG ASSURES SCUML 

The anticipated Central Monitoring System (CMS) will checkmate illegal activities of Online Casinos and other forms of gaming, the Director-General of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila has assured. 

Director-General of the NLRC, Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila (6th right); with the Director, SCUML, Mr. Daniel Isei (5th right) and other management staff during the courtesy visit of SCUML to the NLRC Corporate Headquarters in Abuja, recently.

Mr. Gbajabiamila gave the assurance during a courtesy visit by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) to the NLRC recently. 

The SCUML team which was led by its Director, Mr. Daniel Isei, told the NLRC DG that they were at the Commission to deepen the existing collaboration between the two agencies, as well as get more information about the monitoring of casinos in the country. 

The DG however assured his guests that 

the Commission was on top of the situation of monitoring activities of Casinos, particularly online ones, and the review of the NLRC Act 2005 which is ongoing would further give the Commission more legal backing to tackle issues associated with online gaming, including Casinos. 

“I appreciate you for taking out time to visit us here at the Commission to deepen our already existing ties. I want you to know that we are in the process of deploying the Central Monitoring System (CMS) and this will go a long way to help us monitor the activities of Online Casinos and all other forms of gaming. 

“The National Lottery Act 2005 does not really capture the supervision of Casinos, but an amendment is already taking place at the National Assembly and this will give us more legal backing to tackle all the issues. We are glad you raised the issue but I assure you that we are on top of the situation and the CMS would capture the Casinos and all other aspects of gaming. 

“We are also in partnership with other sister agencies like the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), amongst so many others,” Gbajabiamila said. 

In his address, the Director SCUML, Mr. Daniel Isei, hailed the collaboration both agencies have had in the past, whilst also seeking more partnership in tackling money laundering issues in the country. 

“I appreciate the Commission for all it has been doing with us. Though we called this a courtesy call, we are also using this opportunity to highlight certain issues that would be of mutual benefit to us all. 

“As a designated department in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), our mandate is to combat all forms of money laundering in the country and we are grateful that you have been supporting us to achieve, this but we want to take our partnership with you to another level,” Isei said. 

The high point of the meeting was a question-and-answer session where issues regarding licensing and registration by lottery operators were discussed and clarified. 

By Tony Udoka