*** Seychelles Confirmed For Internet Gambling
The ILBS.com legal information website confirmed this week that the
Seychelles is a licensing jurisdiction for online gambling operators
in terms of its Interactive Gambling Act.
The Seychelles is an idyllic tropical archipelago of 115 islands
positioned about a thousand kilometres off the Kenyan coast in the
Indian Ocean.
IBLS advises that the Interactive Gambling Act provides for the
licensing and regulation of any Internet gambling business conducted
in or from the Seychelles. It conforms to strict international
regulatory norms and draws heavily from the relevant Australian
legislation.
Under the Act, the regulatory authority will only grant licenses to
conduct interactive games to fit and proper persons, and retains the
right of approval of the gaming software and control system. In
deciding to grant or refuse to grant an application for a license, the
authority may consider various factors including the applicant's
character or business reputation; the applicant's current financial
position and financial background; the ownership or corporate
structure of the applicant where the applicant is not an individual;
the character or business reputation and the current financial
position and financial background of any body incorporated or not with
which the applicant has a business association.
In terms of regulation and enforcement measures, the Act requires the
annual auditing of an operator's accounts and financial statements,
and submission of a copy of the audit report to the regulatory
authority.
The Act also provides for inspectors who have a range of powers of
entry and search in the course of monitoring or enforcing compliance
with the Act. These powers include an inspector's authority to seize
an article where she or he reasonably believes that such article is
evidence of an offence under the Act.
Operators who are not Seychellois can apply for a license, but that
individual or corporation must appoint a Seychelles individual
resident to act as its agent. The nominated individual must declare
that he or she accepts the appointment for the appointment to take
effect. If a license is granted, the authorized agent shall, for all
purposes, be treated as the licensee and the parts of the Act which
refer to a licensee shall be read and construed as references to such
authorized agent.